Longtime fugitive Ira Einhorn listens to his lawyer Dominique Delthil. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

Wearing a black shirt, black pants, black plastic sandals and a smile, Einhorn was transferred yesterday to a new cell in Bordeaux, where a panel of three French judges will eventually decide whether to send him back to the United States.

But first -- as early as next Tuesday -- the judges face a request from Einhorn's French attorneys that he be released on bail while waiting for the ruling on extradition. If bail is granted, Einhorn could return -- at least temporarily -- to the comfortable country millhouse outside Champagne-Mouton where he spent the past five years with his Swedish-born wife, Annika.

"I have confidence for Tuesday, and I think he will be released because everyone knows that he does not intend to leave Champagne-Mouton," said Einhorn's lawyer, Dominique Delthil.

Since an initial American extradition request went down in flames last December, Einhorn has been reporting weekly to the local police station, verifying that he is still in the area.

District Attorney Lynne Abraham yesterday publicly thanked French authorities for taking Einhorn into custody again -- more than 18 years since Einhorn fled the United States to avoid a trial in Philadelphia in the bludgeon-murder of his one-time girl friend, Holly Maddux.

Abraham took no public position on whether bail should be granted, and dodged other questions about the Einhorn case. She expressed concern that any substantive comments might anger French authorities and undermine efforts to get Einhorn returned to Philadelphia.

When French gendarmes first discovered Einhorn's hiding place and took him into custody in June 1997, she and other American authorities seemed to believe his extradition was assured.

But Einhorn's lawyers criticized the Philadelphia DA's office for trying Einhorn in absentia in 1993, while the one-time counterculture guru was still in hiding. The resulting first-degree murder conviction was unfair, the lawyers argued, and there was no guarantee that Einhorn would get another trial. The French judges agreed and denied extradition.

The new extradition effort is based on a new Pennsylvania law, passed by the Legislature last January at the behest of Abraham and state Attorney General Mike Fisher. It promises a new trial for anyone convicted in absentia, returned to the state by extradition and requesting a new trial.

"We will do everything within our power," Abraham vowed yesterday, "to see that Mr. Einhorn will receive a full and fair trial if he is returned to the United States."

Problem is, says Einhorn's legal team, that neither the Legislature nor the DA's office has the power to order a new trial for Einhorn. That authority rests with the Pennsylvania courts, they contend, making the DA's promise of a new trial somewhat empty.

Norris Gelman, the Philadelphia attorney who represented Einhorn, in the 1993 trial, cited a 1977 decision by the state Supreme Court that voided an effort by the Legislature to reduce prison sentences for convicted marijuana users.

In 1972, the Legislature approved a new, more lenient sentencing structure for persons found guilty of possessing small amounts of marijuana. Persons already in jail under stiffer sentences could petition the courts to have their sentences reduced in accord with the new law, the Legislature said.

In a 4-2 decision, the high court said it was up to the judicial system, not the Legislature, to change "final legal judgments."

"We recognize that the doctrine of the separation of powers was not intended to hermetically seal off the three branches of government from one another," the court said, warning "final judgments of the judicial branch are not to be interfered with by legislative fiat."

Queried about the possibility of asking the courts to void Einhorn's 1993 conviction, the DA stated: "I'm not going to ask anything, unless or until he's here."