6550.005.- Treaty between the USA and Haiti for the mutual extradition of criminals (1904)

Histoire et Société

✍ Note:

• Ratified by Haiti, August 25, 1904;
• Ratification advised by the US Senate, December 15, 1904;
• Ratified by the US President, June 17, 1905;
• Ratifications exchanged at Washington, June 28, 1905; proclaimed, June 28, 1905.

Texte intégral de la convention:

The United States of America and the Republic of Haiti, wishing to insure the proper administration of justice, have resolved to conclude a treaty for the purpose of mutually surrendering persons who, being charged with one of the crimes hereinafter specified, or having been sentenced for one of these crimes, shall, by flight, have escaped judicial prosecution or the consequences of their sentence.

To this end they have appointed their Plénipotentiaires, to wit:

• The Président of the United States of America, John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States of America; and,
• The Président of the Republic of Haiti, Mr. J. N. Léger, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Haiti at Washington;

Who after having communicated their respective full powers, found in good and due form, have agreed on the following articles:

Article 1:
The High Contracting Parties agree to deliver up to their respective justice, persons who, being accused or convicted of any of the crimes hereinafter enumerated, committed within the limits of jurisdiction of the demanding party, shall have afterwards taken refuge or shall be found in the territory of the other; provided, that this shall only be done upon such evidence of criminality as, according to the laws of the place where the fugitive or person so charged shall be found, would justify his apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime or offense had been there committed.

Article 2:
The crimes for which extradition shall be granted are the following:

1. Murder (including assassination, parricide, infanticide, poisoning, and voluntary manslaughter).
2. Counterfeiting of money, either coin or paper;
   Utterance or circulation of counterfeit or altered money;
   Introduction of counterfeit or altered money into the territory of one of the Contracting Parties.
3. Counterfeiting of any securities issued by one of the Contracting Parties, of bonds or coupons of the public debt, of bank notes or other instruments of credit authorized by law; utterance, use, or introduction, in the territory of one of the Parties, of the aforementioned counterfeit or falsified securities or notes.
4. Forging of the public or private documents; use of forged documents.
5. Larceny; robbery, or that which corresponds to the crime provided for and punished by the laws of Haiti as theft committed with arms in hand or by violence or threats, or on the public highways; burglary, or that which corresponds to the crime provided for and punished by the laws of Haiti as theft committed by breaking or climbing into, or using false keys, or at night in a place inhabited or used as a dwelling.
6. Embezzling by public officers or by persons hired or salaried, to the detriment of their employers; provided, that the amount of money or value of the property embezzled is not less than two hundred dollars.
7. Arson; destruction of railways, bridges, tramways, vessels, public edifices or other buildings, endangering human life.
8. Perjury; subornation of perjury; bribery, denned to be the giving or receiving of a reward to influence one in the discharge of a legal duty.
9. Rape.
10. Bigamy.
11. Kidnapping of minors.
12. Piracy, as denned by statute or international law.

Article 3:
Extradition shall be also be granted for the attempt to commit one of the crimes above enumerated, and against any accomplice of these crimes or attempts at crimes, when such complicity and attempt are punishable by the laws of the Party demanding the extradition.

Article 4:
Neither of the Contracting Parties shall be obliged to deliver up its own citizens.

Article 5:
If the person claimed is under prosecution, either in the United States or Haiti, for any other crime than that upon which the demand for extradition is based, the extradition shall be postponed until the judgment is pronounced, and, if the person is convicted, until the sentence imposed is fully served or remitted.
The extradition may also be postponed when the person claimed is being prosecuted for a civil offense in the country of which the demand is made. In this case it will not take place until after the execution of the judgment or the remission of the penalty.

Article 6:
A fugitive who shall have been claimed at the same time by two or more States, shall be delivered up to the State which has first presented its demand; provided, that the government from which extradition is sought is not bound by treaty to give preference otherwise.

Article 7:
The provision of the present treaty shall not apply to offenses of a political character. The assassination or poisoning of the head of a government, or any other attempt against the life of the head of a government, shall not be considered as a crime of a political character.

A person whose extradition shall have been granted on account of one of the crimes mentioned in Article II of this Convention shall not, in any case be tried for a political offense or for an act connected with a political offense committed prior to the demand for extradition, unless such person has had abundant opportunity to quit the country during the month following that in which he was set at liberty either as a result of acquittal, expiration of his sentence, or pardon.

Article 8:
A person surrendered cannot, without the consent of the State which has granted the extradition, be detained or tried in the State which has obtained his extradition, for any other crime or causes than those which have given rise to the extradition. This stipulation does not apply to crimes committed subsequently to the extradition.

However, a person who has had ample opportunity to quit the country which has obtained his extradition, and who shall be found there a month after his release by acquittal, the expiration of his sentence, or pardon, may be arrested and tried, without the consent of the State which has granted the extradition, for other crimes than those which have given rise to the demand for extradition.

Article 9:
Where the arrest and detention of a fugitive in the United States are desired on telegraphic or other information in advance of the presentation of the formal proofs, complaint on oath, as provided by the Statutes of the United States, shall be made by an agent of the Haitian Government before a judge or other magistrate authorized to issue warrants of arrest in extradition cases.

In Haiti the diplomatic or consular agent of the United States shall address, through the Ministry of Foreign Relations, a complaint to the government commissioner or any other magistrate authorized to issue warrants of commitment, the provisional arrest and detention of a fugitive shall cease and the prisoner be released if a formal requisition for his surrender, accompanied by the necessary evidence of criminality, has not been produced under the stipulations of this Convention within sixty days from the date of his arrest.

Article 10:
Every demand for extradition shall be made through the diplomatic agents of the High Contracting Parties. In case of absence or impediment of these agents, the demand may be presented by the consuls. This demand shall be acted on in conformity with the laws of each of the Parties. Nevertheless, if the person demanded has already been sentenced for one of the crimes herein before enumerated, the requisition shall be merely accompanied by the sentence, duly certified by the competent authority of the State demanding the extradition.

Article 11:
In the investigation which they may have to make, according to their own laws, the authorities of the State of which the demand is made who are qualified to decide on the demand for the extradition, shall admit as entirely valid evidence ail depositions or declarations of witnesses coming from the other State, or copies thereof, and warrants issued, provided these documents are signed or certified by a competent magistrate or officer of the State making the demand.

Article 12:
The objects found in the possession of the fugitive and which were obtained by the perpetration of the crime with which he is charged, or which may serve to prove his crime, shall be seized at the time of his arrest and delivered together with his person to the party demanding the extradition. Nevertheless, the rights of third persons to the articles so found shall be respected.

Article 13:
The expenses of detention, procedure, and delivery, incurred in virtue of the preceding articles, shall be borne by the demanding Party. It is agreed, however, that the State making the demand shall have nothing to pay to the officers of the State to which the demand is addressed who receive fixed salaries; office» who, having no fixed salary, receive fees, shall not demand any other fees than those generally charged in ordinary criminal procedures.

Article 14:
The stipulations of the present treaty are applicable to the insular possessions of the United States. In this case the demand shall be addressed to the Governor or principal authority of the possession by the consul of Haiti.

Article 15:
The present treaty shall remain in force until it is denounced; it shall cease to bind the Parties six months after one of them shall have notified its intention to terminate it.

Article 16:
The present treaty shall be approved and ratified by the competent authority of each of the High Contracting Parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the foregoing articles, and have affixed their seals.

Done in duplicate at Washington, in English and French, this ninth day of August, nineteen hundred and four.

John Hay (sceau)
Secretary of State of the United States of America

J. N. Leger (sceau)
Envoy Extraordinary
and Minister Plenipotentiary of Haiti at Washington

≅ Source:

• Stoerk, Felix. Nouveau Recueil général de traités et autres actes relatifs aux rapports de droit international, continuation du Grand Recueil de G.-Fr. de Martens… 2ème série. Vol. 33. Gottingue : Dieterich, 1906 ; pp 130-134.
• United States Statutes at Large, volume 34 (95th Congress, 1905-07), and begins on in volume 3. Washington : U.S. Govt. Print. Office, 1873-1936; from page 2858.