Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
Einhorn Attempts Suicide
Aired July 12, 2001 - 10:36 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go to France now to the Champagne region, where a long sputtering legal effort to extradite an American living in France has taken a dramatic turn now.
Ira Einhorn, who has been a fugitive in France since 1981, has attempted suicide today after losing his appeal of an extradition order that would return him to the United States. His lawyer has told us that Mr. Einhorn attempted to take his own life but that now his life is not in danger.
Let's talk with that lawyer, Dominique Tricaud, who joins us on the telephone from Paris, and who was earlier today on the telephone himself with his client, Mr. Einhorn.
Mr. Tricaud, are you there?
DOMINIQUE TRICAUD, IRA EINHORN'S ATTORNEY: Yes, I am.
FRAZIER: Can you tell us what happened to Mr. Einhorn?
TRICAUD: When he has been noticed the decision of the consulate of state, he has tried to kill himself, cutting his neck and cutting his arms.
FRAZIER: But apparently his life is not in danger now, you are saying?
TRICAUD: I have no information about that. I know that he's in an ambulance for a half an hour now, and I don't know more.
FRAZIER: Let's do a little background work now here. You've been representing Mr. Einhorn for a long time. He fled the United States in 1981 just before he was due to stand trial in the state of Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
TRICAUD: Exact.
FRAZIER: For a crime in which he was accused of bludgeoning his girlfriend, Holly Maddux.
TRICAUD: Yes.
FRAZIER: And he has managed to stay there for years because of a quirk -- not a quirk -- a special feature of French law. Could you explain that?
TRICAUD: Not exactly. You know, in 20 years about, he escaped because it don't exist in abstentia trial. The in abstentia trial was only introduced in the Pennsylvania system in 1993. so that means that they could only judge him in '93 and sentenced him to life imprisonment in '93. But he was (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in France only in '97.
FRAZIER: And the French would not extradite him short of that trial because France will not send back a fugitive to a nation which might put him to death, is that correct?
TRICAUD: There were two reasons. The first reason why is that the first one. But the first reason is that in France and in Europe when a fugitive is arrested, he's granted to get a new trial. And in the abstentia system of Pennsylvania, you can't get a new trial. For this reason, the court of appeals of Bordeaux in 1997 refused the extradition.
And so the state of Pennsylvania enacted a new law in '98 allowing a new trial for a fugitive who is arrested in a foreign country if the foreign country refuses the extradition without a new trial. So because of that, the state of Pennsylvania requested a second time for extradition. So that was the case.
The question was to know if Mr. Einhorn will get a new trial and if he might get the death penalty. We're really sure now that Mr. Einhorn has no chance to get a new trial.
FRAZIER: But he also won't receive the death penalty because capital punishment was not legal in Pennsylvania at the time of the crime. So based on some of these legal rethinkings...
TRICAUD: It's depends of the depth of the crime. Mrs. Maddux has disappeared in 1977...
FRAZIER: Anyway, the legal net has been closing around Mr. Einhorn for some time now, if I understand correctly, Mr. Tricaud. The prime minister actually approved Mr. Einhorn's extradition three months ago. This was...
TRICAUD: Yes. One year ago. One year ago.
FRAZIER: All right. So there was this last chance appeal now before what you just told us, the Council of State, which he has just lost.
TRICAUD: It's not his last chance because we have made this afternoon an appeal before the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights can make a prejudgment in the following days or in a few weeks asking the French government to wait for the extradition until its made its final judgment.
FRAZIER: Well, this is a complicated story and, Mr. Tricaud, we're grateful for you explaining it to us. As you can imagine, there's great interest in the United States as to the fate of Mr. Tricaud.
TRICAUD: Yes.
FRAZIER: Thank you for bringing us up to date.
TRICAUD: OK.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
