Interstate Rendition

Interstate rendition

Interstate Rendition also called Extradition is defined in Article 4 Section 2 Clause 2 it states “A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of the executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime”(Wikipedia) It requires the state to return a fugitive from justice who flees from a state where a crime was committed and enters another state, the constitution provides that the governor returns the fugitive to the state that has jurisdiction of the crime. Only chief executive officer to chief executive officer, so from governor to governor can request rendition. It is not a mandatory process, if a governor is asked to return a fugitive he can say no.
The meaning of the extradition or Interstate Rendition clause was first really tested in the case of Kentucky v. Dennison. The case was that in 1859 a man named Willis Lago from Ohio who was wanted in Kentucky for helping a slave girl named Charlette escape.   “Kentucky indicted Lago for theft and Governor Beriah Magoffin of Kentucky asked Ohio Governor Salmon P. Chase to extradite Lago. Chase refused to comply, arguing that Lago had not committed a crime recognized by Ohio law. Magoffin waited until Chase left office in 1860 and renewed the requisition with the new Ohio governor, William Dennison, who also refused to comply.” (Wikipedia) Magoffin then issued a writ of mandamus to force Dennison to act.   A writ of Mandamus means "we command" in Latin it is "issued by a superior court to compel a lower court or a government officer to perform mandatory or purely ministerial duties correctly". Magoffin sued in the United States Supreme Court, under the court's original jurisdiction for cases between two states. The Supreme Court held that the federal courts may not compel state governors to surrender fugitives through...