Open the Door to Justice
ON Tuesday, the long-awaited extradition from Mexico to the United States of Jorge Arroyo Garcia, who is charged with the killing of Temple Station Deputy David March, was not a celebratory moment. As his widow, Theresa March put it, it was a day of sorrow.
It was day to be reminded of the loss of a husband, a son, a brother. And the entire San Gabriel Valley was reminded we lost a deputy who worked to protect us all from evil. "Two people are gone forever. Garcia threw his life away, and David is gone forever," she said.
But it was a victory for the rule of law, both in the United States and in Mexico. That is, that no one should get away with murder by fleeing into Mexico. Perhaps now, we can point to the day Sheriff Lee Baca slapped March's handcuffs onto Garcia as the moment when the most basic rule of law - thou shalt not murder - once again is being upheld in Los Angeles County. It has been more than four years since Deputy March was shot execution style in an unincorporated area of Irwindale on Live Oak Avenue. On April 29, 2002, March pulled Garcia over in a routine traffic stop. Investigators believe the Mexican national, who was deported four times and was also implicated in a string of other violent. Advertisement
crimes, shot March in the chest and the head and then fled to Mexico. He was arrested in Tonala, Jalisco on Feb. 23, 2006. After his extradition appeals were turned down by a Mexican court, he was taken into custody and put in an Orange County jail. Today, he is scheduled to be arraigned in a Pomona court and charged with the deputy's murder.
It took the murder of a Temple Station deputy to bring this shocking truth to light: About 200 murder suspects from Los Angeles County are believed to be hiding in Mexico - some 400 local fugitives in total, according to District Attorney Steve Cooley. Worse, many of these suspected criminals were protected by Mexican law, which prohibited extradition to the United States for suspects facing the death penalty, according to a 1978 treaty. The Mexican Supreme Court, in October 2001, made things worse by adding life without parole to the list of non-extradition criteria.
Credit goes to Teri March and John and Barbara March, Deputy March's parents, for lobbying Congress and the White House for changes in extradition laws between the two countries. Their Web site escapingjustice.com highlights similar cases and lends support to other families caught in the foreign relations quagmire.
We called this the No. 1 issue in Los Angeles County. Having our citizens shot and killed and then sitting by as the suspects live the good life in Mexico, while our law enforcement watch helplessly? This could not stand.
Credit Reps. David Dreier, R- Glendora, and Adam Schiff, R- Pasadena, who introduced the Peace Officer Justice Act that said killing an American peace officer and fleeing the country was a crime against the United States. As such, they had a message for Mexico: The full force of the U.S. government will be brought to bear to bring cop killers to justice.
But it was the diplomacy of Dreier and others that nudged the Mexican Supreme Court to change its extradition ruling to no longer object to "long sentences" as cruel and unusual punishment. In fact, the Mexican Court in 2005 ruled such sentences were appropriate for heinous crimes, opening the door for extraditions to L.A. County. Cooley and Baca helped bring back from Mexico Ricardo Rodriguez, 26, who faced a possible life sentence for attempted murder of a peace officer during a vehicle pursuit in the county.
We wish Cooley Godspeed in extraditing other suspects from Mexico for prosecution here. On his radar is Alvaro Jara-Luna, an L.A. gang member who fled to Mexico to avoid being charged with the 1988 killing of 12-year-old Steven Morales who was playing baseball on his front lawn. Jara-Luna twice had his extradition blocked by Mexico. Just like the cases in 2005, the extradition of Garcia to face murder charges has opened the door of justice for other families that have had it slammed in their faces.
But it also could end up as a building block toward better border relations between the two nations. That is still an issue very much unresolved.
