Extradition proceedings against a woman wanted in the US in connection with the murder of her brother-in-law are to be heard tomorrow by the Dublin District Court. Ms Beth Carpenter (34), a lawyer from Hartford, Connecticut, has been in Mountjoy Prison since her arrest on November 12th.
Prosecuting authorities in Connecticut allege she was part of a conspiracy which has already led to two men being convicted for the murder of her brother-in-law, Mr Anson "Buzz" Clinton (28). A third man has been charged and is awaiting trial.
Ms Carpenter, who came to Dublin from London in August, is to contest the extradition application on several grounds, including the fact that the capital felony offence for which she is wanted in the US does not exist in Irish law.
The offence carries the death penalty in Connecticut, but the US authorities have given a formal assurance to the Government that it will not be applied in Ms Carpenter's case if she is convicted. Under Irish law she could not be extradited if she were to face possible execution.
Lawyers for Ms Carpenter will also argue, when the extradition application is heard tomorrow, that the conditions for women prisoners in Connecticut provide further grounds for refusal. It is also claimed that Ms Carpenter was never in hiding, as alleged by the Connecticut authorities.
A formal request for Ms Carpenter's extradition was made in November to the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, by the US ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith.
In her letter to the Minister Mrs Kennedy Smith said that Ms Carpenter fled the US when she learned that she was subject to arrest.
"She fled to England. She fled from the jurisdiction of England when she learned that law enforcement officials had discovered her whereabouts in England. She then fled to Ireland where, only through the diligent efforts of the Irish law enforcement officials, she was apprehended," the letter stated.
Ms Carpenter's lawyer in the US, Mr Hugh Keefe, told The Irish Times that the authorities were at all times aware of his client's whereabouts. He claimed that she assisted, from London, in the prosecution of another person accused in the case, Mr Haiman Clein.
Mr Clein (56), a lawyer, had been having an affair with Ms Carpenter. He and another man, Mr Mark Despres (37), have been convicted of murdering Mr Clinton, who was shot dead on the interstate highway in Hartford, Connecticut, in March 1994.
A court in Connecticut heard how Mr Despres, who was paid £12,400 by Mr Clein to carry out the murder, shot Mr Clinton six times with a revolver after meeting him under the pretence that he was interested in buying a tow truck from him.
Moments before shooting Mr Clinton, Mr Despres asked his then 15-year-old son, Christopher, if he would like to carry out the killing. His son refused.
Ms Carpenter, who is wanted on charges of capital felony, murder and conspiracy to murder, is alleged to have asked Mr Clein to organise the murder. "The facts of the case indicate that Carpenter requested from her law partner and lover, Haiman Clein, that he have Anson `Buzz' Clinton killed," said Mrs Kennedy Smith in her letter to Mr O'Donoghue.
Another man, Mr Joseph Fremut, is awaiting trial on charges of capital felony, murder and conspiracy to murder Mr Clinton. He was not present on the night of the killing but is alleged to have assisted Mr Despres.
Mr Keefe said he was not aware that a warrant for Ms Carpenter's arrest issued last August existed until early November. He immediately opened negotiations with the US authorities on the bail conditions to apply when she returned. He said this process had just started when he learned she had been arrested in Dublin.
He said his client would be pleading not guilty to all the charges.
The Connecticut assistant state attorney, Mr Paul E. Murray, and a spokesman for the state police declined to comment on Mr Keefe's assertion that Ms Carpenter had been available at all times to face the charges against her.
