Extradition hearing Doherty escaped across the border into the
Republic of Ireland, and then travelled to the United States on a false passport. Doherty claimed he was immune from extradition as the killing of Westmacott was a political act, saying "It was an operation that was typical of all operations where we set up an ambush of a British military convoy... It is a war, and this was a military action". In December 1984, United States district judge John E. Sprizzo ruled that under the existing treaty, Doherty could not be extradited as the killing of a British soldier engaged in active
combat was a "political offense" and his actions did not involve violence against civilians, including government representatives. In his finding, Sprizzo wrote the political offense exception was extended to
guerilla warfare in addition to "actual armed
insurrections or more traditional and overt military hostilities". He also wrote that the IRA "has both an organization, discipline, and command structure that distinguishes it from more amorphous groups such as the
Black Liberation Army or the
Red Brigade."
Reactions British
Conservative MP Jill Knight called the ruling "a seal of approval to murder, maiming and terrorism". Most major U.S. newspaper editorials responded to Sprizzo's decision with
sensationalist attacks. For example, the
Wall Street Journal said the political offense exception would be used to protect
Pope John Paul II's attempted assassin
Mehmet Ali Ağca, "whose
attempted assassination of the Pope has behind it the organization, discipline and command structure of the Soviet Government." The
New York Post stated the ruling would make killing a Supreme Court justice a political offense. The
Chicago Tribune accused Sprizzo of misusing the power to forbid extradition. The
New York Daily News asserted "Sprizzo would presumably call [the
bombings of the Brighton hotel and department stores and restaurants] 'political' acts ... It's a ridiculous argument." Belfast author
Jack Holland noted the decision "had come at the time when the Presidency of Ronald Reagan|[Reagan] administration was trying to present a united front against 'international terrorism' and the idea that a U.S. judicial officer....should distinguish between some politically motivated violent acts and others was obviously outrageous." He wrote: What was conveniently ignored, in the torrents of near-hysteria abuse directed at the judge, was the careful and conservative nature of his decision. It represented a limiting of the scope of the political-offense exception to actually exclude most of the kinds of crimes that the Reagan government and the popular press were accusing it of glorifying or excusing. The angry reaction had another aspect. In [the] future, any judge or magistrate contemplating finding in favor of the political-exception defense could not help being intimidated by the prospect of the denunciations and controversy that the finding would be bound to produce. Arguing against Doherty's extradition in a
New York Times editorial opinion on 19 February 1992, Professor
Christopher Pyle stated: Mr. Doherty was not extraditable for the same reason that Britain would not surrender
Confederate soldiers who fled to Canada during
our Civil War [e.g.,
St. Albans Raid]. He was a rebel, and he had not committed any atrocities. Sprizzo's ruling led to the U.S. and UK amending their 1972 extradition treaty in 1986 and narrowed the number of political offense exceptions by specifically excluding crimes such as murder, manslaughter, and using explosives. Under Article 3 of this new treaty, fugitives can only have their extradition blocked if the requesting party can be proved that it would punish them based on their race, religion, nationality or political opinions.
Deportation Doherty's legal battle continued as the
United States Department of Justice then attempted to deport him for entering the country illegally. He remained in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center and attempted to claim
political asylum, and on 15 June 1988 the
Attorney General Edwin Meese overturned an earlier ruling by the
Federal Board of Immigration Appeals that Doherty could be deported to the Republic of Ireland, and ordered his deportation to Northern Ireland. By this time Doherty's case was a
cause célèbre with his sympathisers including over 130
Congressmen and a son of then President of the United States
George H. W. Bush, and in 1990 a street corner near the Metropolitan Correctional Center was named after him. In August 1991, Doherty was transferred to a federal prison in
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and on 16 January 1992 the
Supreme Court of the United States overturned a 1990
federal appeals court ruling by a 5-to-3 decision, paving the way for his deportation. Doherty was returned to Crumlin Road prison before being transferred to
HM Prison Maze, and was released from prison on 6 November 1998 under the terms of the
Good Friday Agreement. After his release Doherty became a community worker specialising in helping disadvantaged young people. In 2006, he appeared in the
BBC television show
Facing the Truth opposite the relatives of a soldier killed in the
Warrenpoint ambush. == Notes ==