Death Penalty By Extradition
In a crime/legal drama set in a location without the death penalty, almost always Big Applesauce, the drama of the death penalty is reintroduced by introducing the possibility that the defendant has committed a capital crime outside of New York State or that the defendant has committed a federal crime (which is still subject to the death penalty). If the protagonists are the defense it raises the stakes for failure, forcing them to find a way to quash the possibility. If the protagonists are the prosecution however, the responses are more varied: Some may see it as Justice by Other Legal Means and gladly help (if not initiate the idea for a criminal they find deserving), but others may consider it Jurisdiction Friction and fight to keep "their" case.
Conveniently that the death penalty is being sought is mentioned before the extradition, allowing someone someone to say "New York doesn't have the death penalty" before it is clarified. This allows the show to make it clear to the audience that New York doesn't have a death penalty for the benefit of foreign audiences and the young Americans not yet aware of the fact, and that New York still doesn't have the death penalty just like the real world state of New York instead of leaving the possibility it was reintroduced between the present day and when the work takes place (if a work is set in the future), or was never removed in this universe's New York on account of how it has departments expected to handle vicious homicides every week, and/or mass murderers who can't be confined to a jail cell.
Literature
- Achieved in the book version of Clear and Present Danger. The main villain, when captured by the CIA, spills his guts and sells out the drug cartels he was working with in exchange for not being prosecuted by giving up much bigger fish. The CIA honors his Exact Words, but decide to instead hand him back over to his native country to deal with instead And since that country is Cuba, and he's a traitor to their intelligence service, the CIA handed him over to what amounts to this trope, which he is all too aware of as he's dragged off in the finale.
Live-Action Television
- Appears several times in Law & Order. The way the prosecutor reacts is a good indicator of their style.
- This is how the episode Aftershock, showing how the cast reacts to having witnessed an execution of a criminal they caught/convicted, is able to happen.
- Special mention to the episode Fallout where McCoy hands a Russian gang member who kidnapped a girl for prostitution over to the Russians (who don't have any form of extradition agreement with the US. McCoy is, technically, having him deported.), knowing they'll do far worse to him than he could even with far more solid evidence than he had.
- In Season 2 of Marvel's Daredevil Frank Castle committed several murders in New York, but is threatened with the death penalty because he killed some gang members in Delaware. The threat quickly disappears when competent legal assistance brings renders the evidence insufficient to extradite.
Real Life
- Thomas J. Grasso was executed in Oklahoma for the first of his known murders after his arrest and conviction in New York.
- While his mass murder was committed exclusively in New York City, Sayfullo Saipov has been charged federally as a terrorist and President Donald Trump has called for the death penalty.