Briefly Noted

McCallum v. Italy involved the extradition of a U.S. national accused of murdering her husband and the burning of his corpse in Michigan. According to a press release from the Court, At the time she filed her case, she was being detained in Rome, but at the time of the judgment, she was in detention in the U.S. In denying her request to stay her extradition, the Italian authorities referred to the U.S. appeals process, the possibility of a pardon or a commutation of her sentence by the Michigan governor as reasons counseling in favor of extradition. They also felt that there were no reasons to believe that she would be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment there. Several months later, the U.S. authorities sent a diplomatic note to Italy indicating that McCallum would be tried for the lesser offense of second degree murder, which would carry with it the possibility of parole. A new extradition order was issued by Italy, but the Court ordered that it be stayed pending these proceedings. In ultimately holding that the extradition would not violate Article 3, the Court pointed out the importance of Michigan's diplomatic note, indicating that a lesser charge would be imposed. Citing prior case law, the Court noted that “Diplomatic Notes carry a presumption of good faith and that, in extradition cases, it was appropriate that that presumption be applied to a requesting State which has a long history of respect for democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and which has longstanding extradition arrangements with Contracting States” (¶ 51, citing Harkins & Edwards v. UK , nos. 9146/07 and 32650/07 ).