[LINK] Aussie Drink or Die member handed to US on a plate

[Adam Todd]

At 12:22 PM 12/05/2007, Chris Maltby wrote:
> > This decision sets a serious precedent that can be used in the future for
> > even more questionable draconian measures. Imagine this country extraditing
> > a citizen to another jurisdiction that would torture or execute the
> > defendant. Imagine the process being used for political purposes.
>
>Furthermore, I imagine that there will be plenty of people interested in
>challenging this new kind of extradition or any resultant conviction in
>the courts of both countries. Even allowing for the conservative bent of
>the highest courts in both the US and Australia, judges tend to be fairly
>jealous in guarding their role in the legal system against politically
>driven interference...

Oh I don't think it matters what appeals and processes are 
lodged.  He's admitted guilt in their jurisdiction, that's all there 
is to it.  If he had pleaded not guilty to contravention of a US 
Copyright law that would have saved his ass!

Judges are unfortunately making decisions not founded on law or 
authority, they seem these days to be making it up as they go along.

Like Justice Latham in the NSW Supreme Court who recently decided 
that subpoena's are not to be served on strangers to 
proceedings.  However the State says that Notice to Produce is served 
on parties and Subpoena's are served on Strangers.

Go figure.

So now, in NSW, you can't issue a subpoena on any person other than a 
person who is a plaintiff or a defendant in a proceeding, which you 
can't do anyway.

This will ensure that a person who is charged with a criminal 
offence, for example, can not subpoena witnesses and government 
agencies or companies or whatever to gather necessary evidence.

It's a done deal, unless someone wants to sponsor my appeal.

So I wouldn't worry about Extradition to foreign countries, that's 
the least of our worries.  Remembering that Australia was founded on 
Extradition from a foreign country in the first place and really the 
rules and behaviors haven't changed that much.  Especially when 
Judges say at the start of a hearing that you will be taking the 
decision to the Court of Appeal regardless - even before evidence is heard!