Former California Supreme Court Judge Would Have Done Things Differently in Nanes Case

Ambassador Moreno acknowledges the personal interpretation of Justice Hanomansingh while presiding over the Nanes matter.  His disappointment however, is twofold.  Firstly, the former judge says that a court order to temporarily suspend the execution of the ruling would have allowed the prosecution to appeal.  Secondly, bail should have been set at a much higher cost given the circumstances surrounding the extradition request.

Isani Cayetano

“As a former Supreme Court justice, what was your initial reaction when he was granted bail of ten thousand dollars?”

Carlos Moreno

Carlos Moreno, U.S. Ambassador

“Well, you know, I served as a judge for twenty-five years and the bulk of that was in the trial court where I made hundreds if not thousands of bail decisions.  At bottom these are very subjective decisions where the judge weighs the flight risk and the severity of the charge and other innumerable factors.  At bottom is a subjective decision.  My sense here is that the information before the judge was sufficient to at least justify an adjournment for the prosecutor to gather more information concerning the Mexican request for extradition.  And certainly, I think on the basis of credible information and belief, that information was presented to the court.  In the end the judge decided that [ten] thousand dollar bail was sufficient for the nature of the charge, some of his assets that led him to conclude that Mr. Nanes, also known as Mr. Banes, was not a flight risk.  I think people will be debating for many months on end whether that was a good call.  I think it was a subjective call, that is, I mean the court took in the various factors and maybe other judges would have called it a different way.  Two things that I would have done, I think, if I were on the bench, would have granted a stay of execution on the order to allow the prosecution to appeal that and I think a higher bail certainly would have been warranted with greater sureties.”