Dion Bruce sent back to Court of Appeal in extradition hearing

Dion Bruce

Dion Bruce is accused of shooting Aaron Carter to death in July of 2010 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.  In 2014, then-Chief Magistrate Ann-Marie Smith ordered his extradition to face a long list of charges including murder, attempted murder and possession of a firearm. Nearly four years later he continues to languish in jail pending an appeal to the Court of Appeal. But his attorneys Anthony Sylvestre and Audrey Matura were in front of Supreme Court Justice Michelle Arana seeking her review of Bruce’s status. Sylvester explained the filing and result.

Anthony Sylvestre, Attorney for Dion Bruce

Anthony Sylvestre

“We brought this application today, it’s a habeas corpus application. The authorities tell you that you can bring successive habeas corpus applications to the court. We brought this new application to the court and we were relying on the two previous decisions in the Gary Seawell and Mark Seawell matters and you may recall in relation to those matters both brothers were freed and they were discharged from extradition proceedings when the warrants that were issued, they were examined by the Court of Appeal and by the Chief Justice and they were held to have been invalid – they were not in compliance with the provisions of the Extradition Act. So we brought a similar argument and raised a similar issue in relation to this new habeas corpus application for Dion Bruce. What the learned Madam Justice Arana indicated [is] is that because Mr. Bruce may have had an appeal in relation to one of the previous claims, that it would be best that the Court of Appeal hears and determines this new matter which is being raised. Of course, we therefore will have those matters be dealt with frontally before the Court of Appeal, which we are hoping could be on the list for the March session next year.”