Alex Stone Blind Man Extradition Strory.
http://www.petition.co.uk/howes_family_extradition_fight_please_help
Alex Stone is a blind computer science graduate from south London who had worked for a bank for ten years. In May 2003 he joined an email list for blind people, and started chatting to a woman called Alma from Kansas City. They started talking regularly on the phone as well as emailing each other. After a few months they decided they wanted to meet, so Alex made plans to fly out to Kansas City and spend a holiday with Alma that August.
In 2003, as his friendship with Alma was blossoming, Alex Stone was still blissfully unaware of the world of political treaties. Alex and Alma spent a wonderful fortnight together, and Alex met Alma's son, one-year-old Zachary. In the light of his new relationship, he decided to take the redundancy offer he'd been made, and to move out to the US to be with Alma: 'It was exactly what I wanted to do; I wanted to go and live out there and be with her'.
Alex sorted out his life in the UK and flew back to Kansas City in November 2003. He hadn't been there long when the trouble began. Zachary developed a cold that wouldn't get better. He was clearly unwell, so Alma's mother took him to hospital to be looked at. While he was there, the doctors decided to X-ray him, and discovered that both of his arms and both of his legs were broken.
Alma rushed to hospital to be with Zachary, and Alex stayed at home in her apartment. But over the next four or five days, Alex began to feel uncomfortable, and gradually realised that suspicion was falling on him. 'Because I was new on the scene, it was convenient for them to suspect me rather than look at their own family.'
Things got worse when a friend of the family came round to the apartment to warn him. The friend said Alma's family might try to 'do something stupid'. Feeling threatened, Alex moved out of Alma's apartment into a motel. Another four days went past and, after no further contact with Alma, the police turned up. He was taken in for questioning and accused of having injured the child. The only other people who could have injured Zachary were members of Alma's family, and according to the police they were all 'very nice people'.
Alex wasn't charged, and he was taken back to his motel. He contacted a lawyer, who told him that as he hadn't been charged with anything he was free to go, and ought to get out of the US as quickly as possible. So he did; he flew home to London straight away. He'd been in the US less than a month.
Back home he discovered that the papers and TV news reports in Missouri were full of stories saying he had been charged with injuring Zachary, and that he was now in prison. Despite the inaccuracy of the reports, the fact that he had been formally charged with the crime meant things were getting more serious.
First-degree assault on a minor can carry a sentence of up to 30 years in the US.
Nothing happened for a year. Then, in November 2004, Alex's neighbour at his old flat phoned to say that three policemen had been knocking at his door. Alex was advised to turn himself in.
Two days later he presented himself at Charing Cross Police Station, where he was arrested and extradition proceedings began.
Over the following months, and several more court appearances, he discovered that he had absolutely no defence under the Extradition Act. Simply by charging Alex with the crime, the US had the right to extradite him. Thanks to David Blunkett's new law, the British legal system was impotent to protect him. At the end of April 2005, Alex's family drove him to Gatwick Airport, where he was handed over to the Scotland Yard extradition squad, handcuffed, shackled, and put on a private jet to the US.
Now Alex is living in London and looking for work with a 16- month hole in his CV. 'It is very difficult to prove you haven't done
Length: 268
Rating: 5.00 (14 ratings)
Tags: extradition alex stone brian howes blind man justice minister illegal imprisonment arrest Commentary Analysis Documenta
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