Phillip Harkins, who is accused of committing a fatal gun robbery in Florida in 1999 when he was 20 years old, has lost his final appeal in one of the UK’s longest-running extradition battles.
Harkins has always denied being involved in the shooting of Joshua Hayes. After being released on bail and returning to the UK in 2002, he was convicted and imprisoned for dangerous driving that resulted in a woman’s death in a car crash. The US authorities then sought his extradition for the murder of Hayes, leading to an unprecedented legal battle that went to the European Court of Human Rights twice. The court ruled this week that Harkins’s Art 3 rights would not be breached if he was imprisoned for life without parole.
Danielle Reece-Greenhalgh, solicitor, Corker Binning, said: ‘Mr Harkins has reached a point, after 14 years, where the legal avenues available to him have been exhausted.
‘Unless he or his legal team can find cogent and compelling new evidence with which to launch a fresh challenge, this will bring to an end one of the longest extradition battles in UK history, and Mr Harkins will be put on a plane back to the US.
‘The decision regarding the inadmissibility of Mr Harkins’ claim does not in itself come as a surprise. The court will only hear the same appeal again if different grounds are relied upon, or if new evidence can substantiate an existing ground in a way which is materially different to previous attempts.’
Reece-Greenhalgh said the court had noted that there is a system in Florida whereby clemency can be granted. In a separate case, Vinter & Ors v UK, in 2013, the court decided that in order for a life sentence not to constitute inhuman and degrading treatment, it must include at least the possibility of review and release.
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