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Volz unlikely to face return to NicaraguaBy Kate Howard November 19,2008 While Eric Volz could once again be tried in Nicaragua for a murder he says he did not commit, legal experts say it's unlikely he could be forced to return to the Latin American country. Volz, a Nashville resident, was jailed for more than a year in a maximum-security Nicaraguan prison before his conviction was overturned for a lack of evidence and he returned to the U.S. A year later, the Nicaraguan Supreme Court is reviewing the case. "There is nothing that I would like more than to be able to put this whole thing in my rear view mirror and move on with my life," Volz said in an e-mail through a spokeswoman. Melissa Campbell, spokeswoman for Friends of Eric Volz, said the group is not aware of any laws that could force Volz to return to Nicaragua. But Volz said he fears the high court will call for a new trial or reinstate his 30-year prison sentence in the death of Doris Ivania Jimenez, 25, who was raped and strangled at the clothing store she owned in Rivas, Nicaragua. Volz and another man were convicted in the slaying; the other man remains imprisoned. Even if his name isn't cleared, legal experts say, Volz is not likely to be extradited. Extradition is the legal term for the surrender of a criminal suspect by one government to another that has jurisdiction to try the suspect. Officials from the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment specifically or generally on the situation. Volz has contended in YouTube videos that his case is a political one and that the rehearing of the case is illegal without his presence. But Vanderbilt University Law School professor Mike Newton, an expert in international law, said it's not illegal because it's a different system. "They have power that's much broader, to expand sentences, substitute charges and essentially rehear a case and do whatever they deem to be appropriate," Newton said. If the Supreme Court ruled for a retrial and Volz wasn't there, Newton said, that could strengthen the case against his extradition because it would violate Volz's due-process rights. Extradition odds aren't clear At least one expert in extradition law disagrees. "The chance of winning is not on the facts, in my experience, but on the law," said Douglas McNabb, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer. "You've got to be able to show the terms of the treaty (are) not met, that legally there's a reason why an individual should not be extradited." After the appeals ruling, Nicaraguan Attorney General Julio Centeno Gomez told The Washington Post that the ruling freeing Volz was an "atrocity" but he doubted he could win extradition. The United States is more willing than most countries to comply with requests for extradition, according to experts in international law. A treaty has been in place with Nicaragua since 1907 to arrange for the transfer of fugitives, said Diane Marie Amann, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law. But there are too many variables in Volz's case to say for sure what decision might be made, she said. "Nicaragua took the risk in letting him go that he would not return willfully," Amann said. "There are far too many variables to be able to make a clear assumption … each individual case gets considered to make sure that, in this particular case, there isn't something unfair going on." Michael Terry, a Nashville attorney who lives part time in Nicaragua, said he helped Volz get attorneys when he was first arrested and knew that he'd been wrongly arrested. Terry believes that Volz will remain free and that everything happening now is routine and inconsequential. 'He was accused of killing (his) girlfriend and wrongfully convicted. The system that convicted him exonerated him and freed him in eight months," Terry said. "That's a system that works, not a system that's after him because he's a political fugitive." | |