DREIER'S LEGISLATION WOULD HELP COP KILLERS.

Byline: Bob Baker Local View

IT is difficult to imagine a more misleading title on a piece of legislation than one pending in Congress by Congressman David Dreier. If passed, his inappropriately titled ``Peace Officer Justice Act'' would ensure that cop killers can evade the punishment they deserve, merely by fleeing to Mexico or some other foreign country.

Mexico has become a fugitive paradise, willingly harboring and giving sanctuary to hundreds of murderers who have fled the United States after their crimes. A 2001 Mexican Supreme Court decision in essence halted all extraditions of Mexican citizens, or those Americans of Mexican descent. That decision forbade Mexico from extraditing any person, whether or not a Mexican citizen, if that person faced a sentence that carried the possibility of life imprisonment, saying it would violate the Mexican constitution and was ``cruel and unusual punishment.'' In addition, Mexico has consistently refused to extradite murderers if they faced the death penalty.

Dreier's legislation only worsens the situation.

The legislation, ostensibly designed to get cop killers returned to the United States, gives exclusive jurisdiction over such cases to the federal government. Washington then gets to decide, in negotiation with the foreign government harboring the cop killer, the sentence the killer will face. Only after the sentence is agreed upon would there be an extradition. The terms of the extradition treaty would preclude any state prosecution.

This proposal is outrageous beyond words.

In California, for example, a person who kills a police officer in the line of duty faces the death sentence or life in prison without parole. Under Dreier's legislation, the killer could void the penalties established by California voters and legislators by a quick trip to Mexico. Then he could return for prosecution after negotiation, with Dreier's legislation ensuring he would face neither the death penalty nor life in prison.

If ever a piece of legislation both created and rewarded flight from justice, this is it.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley succinctly pointed out these shortcomings in a blistering letter to Dreier. Cooley noted that while nicely titled, Dreier's legislation is nothing more than a sleight of hand that would, in the end, cheapen the sentence for the murder of police officers, acquiesce to the demands of Mexico, and provide an incentive for the murderers of law enforcement officers to flee to Mexico.

The district attorney also pointed out that the Peace Officer Justice Act ignores the plight of all the other violent crimes committed by those who flee the country. It also discounts the considerable experience and expertise of local prosecutors who routinely prosecute murder cases.

Action must be taken now to get killers of police officers back to the United States, but harmful, symbolic legislation is no answer.

The U.S. government cannot sit by silently and continue to allow alleged cop killers and others to flee our criminal-justice system with impunity. We need to shut down this criminal black hole and force these coldblooded criminals to face the music.