Madam, - The US government appreciated the extradition to the US of Frederick Russell on November 9th.
Mr Russell, a US citizen, fled the US for Ireland in 2004 after the start of US court proceedings alleging his involvement in a crime that killed three persons and injured three others.
Mr Russell's extradition will enable the court case to proceed and offer the opportunity for closure for the victims' families and the Washington State community where the incident occurred.
The Russell extradition is the first non-voluntary extradition to the US from Ireland in a decade, despite requests in 17 other cases.
The US hopes the Russell case will be a model for the future.
Some previous requests that did not result in extraditions were held up for reasons relating to paperwork requirements by the Irish authorities.
The US is working hard to assure complete documentation in four remaining cases and in the future.
With other requests, there may have been a reluctance to extradite criminals when our laws or sentencing norms differed.
Despite many cultural similarities, our countries have different histories, customs, and problems with criminality, which have naturally led to some differences in our justice systems and sentencing norms, and yet, both meet exceptionally high standards.
Extradition treaties like the one that has been in force between Ireland and the US since 1983 are intended to allow countries that meet high judicial standards to apply their own laws and sentencing to fugitives without being second-guessed on the law or on sentencing that may apply to them, except in very unusual cases.
Both of our countries are better off if people who commit crimes in the US can expect to be subject to US laws, and people who commit crimes in Ireland can expect to be subject to Irish laws.
Co-operation on extradition will improve the integrity of our respective judicial systems and help to protect the citizens of both countries against criminality.
More extraditions to the US will also keep Ireland from becoming a destination of choice for US criminals - an outcome that, if it has not already happened, will happen when US criminals learn that they will not be extradited if they come to Ireland. - Yours, etc,
THOMAS C FOLEY, Ambassador of The United States of America, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4.