Kazuyoshi Miura, who was acquitted in Japan of murder in connection with the 1981 attack on his then-wife is set to appear today before Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona Manglona who will hear his petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s warrant of arrest.
The judge, known for her meticulous analysis of cases, is expected to take her time before making any ruling.
The defense filed the motion after the judge twice denied Miura’s request for bail since his arrest on Feb. 22 at Saipan’s international airport.
The CNMI prosecutors assigned to Miura’s extradition case are asking the court to reject Miura’s habeas corpus motion.
They said the commonwealth government’s role is limited to delivering Miura to California.
In his reply to the prosecution’s opposition, Bruce Berline, Miura’s lead counsel on Saipan, said his client traveled 11 times after the 1981 crime incident through 1983 to L.A. — indicating that he has no intention to flee from justice if California pursues the case against him.
California filed murder charges against Miura in 1988 and his warrant of arrest was issued subsequently.
Berline said Miura did not know that California is still after him because he’s been acquitted of murder in Japan.
He argued that Miura is not avoiding prosecution.
“It is well known that Mr. Miura was prosecuted, convicted, acquitted and spent many years in jail for these decades’ old allegations,” Berline said. The government’s argument that Mr. Miura alluded prosecution is silly…. The government knows full well that Mr. Miura did not even know that the charges were pending in California all of these years.”
Moreover, Berline said California has the ability and opportunity to extradite Miura beginning in 1988 but didn’t do so.
“Where a demanding state such as California here has the ability and the opportunity to extradite but waits 20 years to do so, such a late attempt violates Mr. Miura’s due process rights guaranteed by the United States and the Commonwealth Constitutions,” said Berline in a five-page reply writ he filed in the CNMI Superior Court. “Simply, California has forfeited its rights to extradite Mr. Miura.”
Acting Chief Prosecutor Jeffery Warfield Sr. argued in his opposition brief that “the failure of a state to extradite a fugitive whose whereabouts are known to the demanding state is not a defense to a subsequent extradition attempt.”
Warfield said California demanded Miura’s extradition based on an amended felony complaint, including an affidavit from Los Angeles Detective Rick Jackson.
“Judge Shapiro then issued a felony arrest warrant for Miura and a certified copy of the same was attached to Governor Schwarzenegger’s request for extradition in which he certified these documents as being authentic thereby satisfying the requirements of 6 C.M.C. § 6903(a)(3) and (b),” he said.
