City & Region
Wednesday, June 18, 1997

The main problem, say experts in international law, is that Einhorn, a fugitive from the law since 1981, was convicted in absentia in Philadelphia and sentenced to life in prison -- and has no rights of appeal left under U.S. law.

France and other European countries grant people who have been convicted in absentia the right to new trials once they are captured. Einhorn has no such right under American law.

That difference could bring the French and U.S. legal systems into conflict over his fate, said Villanova University law professor John F. Murphy, an expert on international human rights law.

``It's not the trial in absentia that's the problem,'' Murphy said. ``People are tried in absentia in Europe all the time, including France. But they do so with the understanding that when the defendant gets apprehended, he gets a totally new trial.''

Murphy said that understanding underlies all the human rights treaties signed by the European countries and governing their international relations.

The United States, he said, has a different legal tradition. Trials in absentia are very rare, and there is no provision for retrying a defendant like Einhorn.

Without the U.S. guarantee of a new trial for Einhorn, Murphy said, French officials would be in violation of international human rights treaties if they sent him back to Pennsylvania to a certain life sentence. Because of the legal status of Einhorn's case, Murphy said, it probably would be impossible under U.S. law for American officials to guarantee the French that Einhorn would receive a new trial.

``How can you guarantee that?'' Murphy said. ``The appeals have expired. This is a closed case.''

``It's a real problem,'' said Bruce Zagaris, a Washington lawyer specializing in international criminal law. ``There is precedent in which the French courts have applied the International Human Rights Convention to several cases involving extradition, and overturned them.''

Murphy said international human rights treaties -- which were backed by the United States -- are taken seriously by European countries. Britain, he said, recently refused to extradite a fugitive to Virginia until U.S. officials guaranteed he would not face the death penalty, which does not exist in Britain.

Even if extradition is ordered, Zagaris said, Einhorn would have the right to appeal through the French courts and then to the International Human Rights Court in Strasbourg, France.

Einhorn, 57, the self-styled guru of Philadelphia's counterculture of the '60s, was arrested Friday in a small village in southwestern France, more than 16 years after he fled Philadelphia on the eve of his trial for the bludgeoning death of his girlfriend, Helen ``Holly'' Maddux. In 1993, while Einhorn was hiding somewhere in Europe, the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office took the unusual step of trying him in absentia before a jury.

Einhorn's lawyers appealed the guilty verdict and life sentence, but the state Superior Court quashed the appeal because he was a fugitive. The state Supreme Court upheld that ruling. In January, while Einhorn was in hiding, statutes of limitation expired for any federal appeals. The FBI and District Attorney Lynne Abraham say they want Einhorn quickly extradited from France so he can begin serving his prison term. Einhorn's attorney, Norris E. Gelman, has said he will fight extradition.

At a Monday news conference announcing Einhorn's capture, Abraham contended that the central issue facing international authorities is whether Einhorn got due process at his trial.

Abraham maintained that Einhorn's U.S. constitutional rights were protected at his trial in absentia. She said appeals courts have ruled that defendants forfeit their appeals rights when they flee to avoid trial.

``We feel that at this point everything is speculation,'' William Davol, a spokesman for Abraham, said last night. ``We haven't even filed the [ extradition ] papers yet, and we will not for another two weeks. . . . We take things as they happen.''

A Clinton administration extradition specialist said yesterday that French officials will likely demand details about what awaits Einhorn if he returns to Philadelphia. That means Philadelphia prosecutors will need to provide an analysis of Pennsylvania law and details of Einhorn's trial and sentencing.

``What you have to determine is what his rights are now,'' said the extradition specialist, who spoke on the condition he not be identified. ``Would he be entitled to a new trial? Would he be entitled to a new sentencing? Those are things that would be important to the extraditing country.'' The official said that French officials know trials in absentia are ``pretty unusual'' in the United States and will likely ask whether Einhorn knew the trial was scheduled when he skipped town, and for the rationale and legal precedent justifying the trial in absentia.