Police and Justice Bill

I support the amendment on grounds raised by the Prime Minister in the other place last week but which have not been raised here. It relates to whether extradition to the United States under present circumstances reasonably guarantees a fair trial in that country. The real difficulty arises partly out of the plea-bargaining system in the US. The vast majority of convictions are secured by plea bargaining rather than by open trial, which means that the prosecuting authority has an interest in putting pressure on defendants to agree to a plea bargain—to agree to plead guilty on a lesser offence. Many American defendants plead guilty believing themselves to be wholly innocent. We cannot be responsible for that problem with American law, but it should be a matter of concern. The Prime Minister took the view in his replies to questions put to him on the case of the NatWest Three that there was grave concern about the bail conditions that might or might not be available to the three when they returned to the United States. Apparently, American law has taken it as a norm that if a defendant tries to avoid extradition by going to the courts in his own country to argue against it, that is evidence that the defendant is likely to be a fugitive from justice, given half a chance. As a result, most defendants who protest against extradition are not allowed bail. Alternatively, they may be allowed bail set at a high level, which they may not be able to afford. The conditions in which remand prisoners are held—not in all states but in some, including Texas, where the three are to be sent—are not such that, in the long period of preparing for a trial, it is reasonably convenient and even possible for defendants to prepare the best defence. They do not have privacy or access to materials required, and, obviously, they do not have free access to witnesses. Unless there is some provision, through a renegotiation of the treaty—and I can see no other way to get it—that normally, unless there are solid grounds for supposing that British defendants sent to the United States are likely to abscond, they would be given reasonable and proportionate bail during which to prepare their defence, particularly in complex cases, as are most of the present cases, we are only too likely to be extraditing our citizens in order that they should be deprived of the opportunity of preparing their defence in a fair trial. That is the main reason why I support the amendments.