Post by Saint on Aug 15, 2003 19:19:44 GMT -5
After considerable thought about the Chapman/Luster fiasco in Mexico other avenues of reflection have surfaced:
Research has shown that the FBI has been able to retrieve over forty (40) fugitives from Mexico just this year alone who have been charged with a variety of serious crimes including murder. Does the media care? No. Chapman and the media would rather 'dis' the feds by saying Chapman outdid them. Well, check this out: the feds received the same info from the tipsters as did Chapman but a day or two later (Chapman also promised the tipsters a $50,000.00 reward he was not authorized to offer). Upon receipt of the info regarding Luster's whereabouts the FBI immediately began their procedures for effecting a 'provisional arrest' and extraditing Luster but Chapman did not resort to any procedural process. It takes a little longer for the FBI to go through the required protocol whereas Chapman was reactive instead of proactive. The FBI would have captured Luster but a few hours or, at the latest, a day later.
Here's something else to consider: International extradition is complicated process where anything can go wrong and sometimes does. If the FBI's legal attache hadn't acted so quickly in arranging for Luster's return to the United States, and if the Mexican courts had time to think about it Luster would have never been deported because Mexico's views the United States justice system as being too harsh and they do not believe in either life sentences or death sentences via their courts. Luster did not receive a life sentence (though 124 years can certainly be considerd a life sentence) or a death sentence so during the time Mexico was pondering what it was all about the FBI's legal attache was able to confuse the issue enough to get Luster out of there by having him deported instead of extradited.
Had a little more time elapsed causing Mexico to not deport Luster he would have been sentenced there and paid his way out of a prison sentence (Mexico is infamous for allowing the convicted to pay their way out of doing jail time). How would Luster's alleged victims felt then about Chapman who would have been directly responsible for Luster walking the streets as a free man in Mexico? It does not at all make even the slightest semblance of common sense when Chapman stated on national television he did not know bounty hunting was illegal in Mexico. Those in the profession know that Chapman is a proven liar and the FBI agent he was in contact with would have surely advised Chapman not to put the 'habeas-grabus' (bounty hunter lingo only) on Luster on foreign soil.
I absolutely dread ever getting another case where I would be required to go into Mexico. What will be the attitude of the FBI towards me because of Chapman's under-handed vigilante ways? What will be the Mexican authorities attitude about me and my goal to capture and have my bad guy extradited?
Sure... Chapman caused a fugitive to be captured but in turn became a fugitive himself and placed the welfare of true and professional bail enforcement agents in harm's way without any thought to the consequences his criminal acts manifested.
Research has shown that the FBI has been able to retrieve over forty (40) fugitives from Mexico just this year alone who have been charged with a variety of serious crimes including murder. Does the media care? No. Chapman and the media would rather 'dis' the feds by saying Chapman outdid them. Well, check this out: the feds received the same info from the tipsters as did Chapman but a day or two later (Chapman also promised the tipsters a $50,000.00 reward he was not authorized to offer). Upon receipt of the info regarding Luster's whereabouts the FBI immediately began their procedures for effecting a 'provisional arrest' and extraditing Luster but Chapman did not resort to any procedural process. It takes a little longer for the FBI to go through the required protocol whereas Chapman was reactive instead of proactive. The FBI would have captured Luster but a few hours or, at the latest, a day later.
Here's something else to consider: International extradition is complicated process where anything can go wrong and sometimes does. If the FBI's legal attache hadn't acted so quickly in arranging for Luster's return to the United States, and if the Mexican courts had time to think about it Luster would have never been deported because Mexico's views the United States justice system as being too harsh and they do not believe in either life sentences or death sentences via their courts. Luster did not receive a life sentence (though 124 years can certainly be considerd a life sentence) or a death sentence so during the time Mexico was pondering what it was all about the FBI's legal attache was able to confuse the issue enough to get Luster out of there by having him deported instead of extradited.
Had a little more time elapsed causing Mexico to not deport Luster he would have been sentenced there and paid his way out of a prison sentence (Mexico is infamous for allowing the convicted to pay their way out of doing jail time). How would Luster's alleged victims felt then about Chapman who would have been directly responsible for Luster walking the streets as a free man in Mexico? It does not at all make even the slightest semblance of common sense when Chapman stated on national television he did not know bounty hunting was illegal in Mexico. Those in the profession know that Chapman is a proven liar and the FBI agent he was in contact with would have surely advised Chapman not to put the 'habeas-grabus' (bounty hunter lingo only) on Luster on foreign soil.
I absolutely dread ever getting another case where I would be required to go into Mexico. What will be the attitude of the FBI towards me because of Chapman's under-handed vigilante ways? What will be the Mexican authorities attitude about me and my goal to capture and have my bad guy extradited?
Sure... Chapman caused a fugitive to be captured but in turn became a fugitive himself and placed the welfare of true and professional bail enforcement agents in harm's way without any thought to the consequences his criminal acts manifested.
