Charles Chitat Ng Trial: 1998-99

The United States and Canada had an extradition treaty. Under it, neither country was obliged to extradite someone who might face the death penalty. At the time it was signed, Canada had the death penalty, but U.S Supreme Court decisions had made the death penalty almost impossible to apply in the United States. Since then, Canada had abolished the death penalty and the U.S. Supreme Court had relaxed its restrictions on executions. California again had the death penalty. If American authorities had guaranteed that Ng would not be executed, he could have been swiftly extradited. But with what was known of Ng's crimes, no California official would dare to give such a guarantee.

On October 26, 1989, Justice Minister Douglas C. Lewis of Canada said Ng would be extradited. Ng's Canadian lawyer, Donald MacLeod, said he'd fight extradition. The Ng extradition became a major civil rights case in Canada. Opponents maintained that the law forbade extraditing a person who could be executed as a result. The government said it had a choice, and with someone accused of Ng's crimes, the choice was not difficult. The fight went on up to Canada's Supreme Court. On September 26, 1991, the Court voted 4 to 3 to send Ng back. Within minutes, he was on a plane to California.

That was hardly the end of the story. Ng filed motion after motion from his cell. One was for a million dollar suit against his current defense attorneys. Another was to dispense with counsel and defend himself—a motion he withdrew within a week. He tried to sue the state over conditions of his imprisonment. The Ng case went to the California Supreme Court five times and involved a dozen judges.