After fighting his extradition to California for more than seven months, Kazuyoshi Miura threw in the towel yesterday, vowing to continue his fight in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cCalifornia is now free to come and escort him,\u201d Bruce Berline, one of Miura\u2019s lawyers, told the mostly Japanese media during what he described as their farewell press conference.<\/p>\n
Shortly before the news briefing, Berline told the U.S. District Court for the NMI that they want to withdraw Miura\u2019s petition for writ of habeas corpus. Assistant Attorney General Jeffery Warfield Sr. did not object to the request.<\/p>\n
Chief Judge Alex R. Munson granted the motion and lifted his order for a stay of Superior Court associate judge Ramona V. Manglona\u2019s extradition order.<\/p>\n
Munson remanded the 61-year-old Miura back to the custody of the U.S. Marshal so the Japanese businessman could be delivered back to CNMI authorities.<\/p>\n
The hearing, which was attended by many members of the Japanese media, lasted less than two minutes. <\/p>\n
Miura was wearing a maroon shirt and a pair of maroon pants. He was smiling as he shook hands with his lawyers, Berline and Mark Hanson. His third counsel, William Fitzgerald, was not in court.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur case is now officially over in Saipan, CNMI with the dismissal of the habeas corpus,\u201d Berline said.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Steven Sicklen ruled that Miura cannot be tried for murder in the 1981 shooting of his wife. He told prosecutors, though, that they can continue with the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.<\/p>\n
Berline said he met with Miura yesterday morning and explained to him the court ruling in California. Berline said he explained what Miura\u2019s options are in going forward with his extradition case on Saipan.<\/p>\n
The lawyer said Miura told him that it was time for him to go to California where he will continue his legal fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I agree with that,\u201d Berline said, adding that they certainly could have continued the fight in the CNMI but, given Van Sicklen\u2019s opinion, \u201cit is time to take the fight to California.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawyer said it was their client who decided it is time for him to go to California.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that he just understands that his time is best spent in California now,\u201d Berline added.<\/p>\n
Warfield told Saipan Tribune after yesterday\u2019s hearing that it\u2019s not over until Miura is actually on a plane and is on his way to California.<\/p>\n
With the dismissal of the petition for habeas corpus, however, Warfield said there are no more impediments to Miura being extradited. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor\u2019s warrant has been upheld. They withdrew their petition for writ and emergency stay. So as soon as California authorities can work it out, he [Miura] will be transported,\u201d the government lawyer said.<\/p>\n
On the sudden withdrawal of Miura\u2019s petition, Warfield said this did not surprise him given what happened in L.A. over the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt pretty much took the arguments that they were making last week before our Supreme Court. The California court upheld the conspiracy charge so it is clear that he has been substantially charge, which we believe is already clear,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said he will immediately call the L.A. District Attorney\u2019s Office about the dismissal of the petition, and that LADA in turn will notify the Los Angeles Police Department.<\/p>\n
Warfield said he has no information as to when the LAPD detectives will return to Saipan to pick up Miura because it was a Sunday yesterday in California.<\/p>\n
Miura was arrested at the airport on Saipan last Feb. 22 over the killing of his wife in L.A. in 1981. Since then he has been fighting his extradition to California. After losing in the CNMI Superior and Supreme courts, he brought the legal fight last Friday to the U.S. District Court for the NMI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After fighting his extradition to California for more than seven months, Kazuyoshi Miura threw in the towel yesterday, vowing to continue his fight in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-126683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126683\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}