ArtIV.S2.C2.2 Meaning of Fugitive from Justice

Article IV, Section 2, Clause 2:

A Person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

Although a person must be charged with a crime to be a fugitive from justice under the Extradition Clause, the Extradition Clause does not require the state demanding extradition (the “demanding state” ) to have charged the fugitive before he left the state. Instead, the Extradition Clause only requires the accused to be located in a state different from the one in which he is charged.1 Moreover, the accused may have left the state for reasons other than avoiding justice because the reason the accused departed is immaterial.2

A demanding state that has received a fugitive from another state may be required to surrender him to a third state upon an extradition warrant.3 A person indicted a second time for the same offense is still considered a fugitive under the Extradition Clause, even if, after dismissal of the first indictment, he left the demanding state with the knowledge of and without objection by state authorities.4 But a defendant cannot be extradited if he was only constructively present in the demanding state when the crime with which he is charged was alleged to have been committed.5

The words “treason, felony or other crime,” as used in the Extradition Clause, embrace every criminal offense forbidden and made punishable by state law,6 including misdemeanors.7

Footnotes
1
Roberts v. Reilly, 116 U.S. 80, 95 (1885); see also Strassheim v. Daily, 221 U.S. 280 (1911); Appleyard v. Massachusetts, 203 U.S. 222 (1906); Ex parte Reggel, 114 U.S. 642, 650 (1885). back
2
Drew v. Thaw, 235 U.S. 432, 439 (1914). back
3
Innes v. Tobin, 240 U.S. 127 (1916). back
4
Bassing v. Cady, 208 U.S. 386 (1908). back
5
Hyatt v. People ex rel. Corkran, 188 U.S. 691 (1903). back
6
Kentucky v. Dennison, 65 U.S. (24 How.) 66, 103 (1861). back
7
Taylor v. Taintor, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 366, 375 (1873). back