Assistant Attorney Jeffery Warfield Sr. asked Superior Court Associate Judge Ramona Manglona to deny Miura’s motion for habeas corpus — a legal route invoked to safeguard someone’s right to freedom in case of arbitrary detention — just like what she did to his previous bail requests.
Japan acquitted Miura of murder in 1998 in relation to the death of his wife who was gunned down by unknown assailant in a parking lot in Los Angeles in 1981.
She later died from wounds she sustained from the attack and Miura collected insurance payouts from her death.
Miura will make his seventh month in detention on Sept. 22 following his arrest at Saipan’s international airport where he was about to board a plane to Japan.
Warfield said the CNMI’s role in Miura’s case should be limited to extradition.
“Interstate extradition is intended to be a summary and mandatory executive proceeding requiring that when a fugitive is found in another state, he be delivered over upon executive demand to the state from which he fled,” he said.
“Kazuyoshi Miura, is currently incarcerated at the CNMI Department of Corrections pursuant to an arrest warrant for extradition signed by the Honorable Gov. Benigno R. Fitial on March 12, 2008 after receiving a governor’s requisition from the Honorable Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger from the state of California,” he added.
Miura’s defense team is challenging the validity of Fitial’s warrant of arrest which is now the basis of his detention.
In California, Miura’s lead counsel, Mark Geragos, is challenging the 1988 murder and conspiracy to commit murder warrant of arrest that the Los Angeles Superior Court reissued in February.
Geragos said his client should not stand trial for murder because that would subject him to double jeopardy.
He argued that the state’s revised Penal Code that no longer considers foreign convictions of acquittals of defendants a deterrent to prosecute defendants should not apply to Miura because his acquittal occurred before 2004.
L.A. prosecutors, however, believe the state could still try Miura for conspiracy to commit murder.
But the defense said Japan also acquitted him of the same charge.
L.A. Judge Steven Van Sicklen continued the hearing on Miura’s motion to quash his arrest warrant last Friday.
He told the prosecution and the defense teams he would not accept any more briefs and would rule on the issue on Sept. 26.
Bruce Berline, Miura’s lead defense counsel on Saipan, told reporters on Saturday that they might ask the CNMI Superior Court to move the scheduled Sept. 12 habeas corpus hearing on a later date pending the resolution of the motion in California.
“This Sept. 26 will solely be for the judge to render his decision on this matter and we’ll go from there….Sept. 26 is kind of a long way off but there’s nothing we can do about that. I’m sure Judge Van Sicklen wants to seek his time. He needs more time to make well written and well thought of opinion to support whatever his decision is going to be,” Berline said.
He said he will discuss with Warfield their request to vacate the Sept. 12 hearing in Saipan for a yet to be agreed on date.
But should the court denies their request, Berline said they are ready to face the prosecution on Sept. 12.
“If the court wants us to go through with that on Sept. 12, we don’t really have a problem with that. Everybody knows we’ve had severe power problems. The Superior Court, in fact, the Supreme Court too they are housed in the same building, are on generator and they are trying to cut back on generator usage. It’s very expensive. So the court’s been severely limited,” he said.
Miura will remain detained in Saipan until something comes up from L.A.
“Until Judge Van Sicklen issues his order nobody is coming from California to pick him up,” he said.
A judicial order is also needed regardless of the L.A. judge’s ruling on Miura’s motion to quash his warrant of arrest.
