BORDEAUX, France (AP) — American fugitive Ira Einhorn won a new reprieve from jail Tuesday, telling a French court considering another U.S. extradition request that he has put his days of disappearing behind him.
The prosecution had argued that mounting U.S. pressure might prompt Einhorn to flee the country. Einhorn, 57, beat an extradition request last December but was re-arrested Sept. 20.
Defense lawyers said Tuesday they feared Pennsylvania authorities might revoke a recent law promising Einhorn a retrial if extradited. They also fear he may be given a death sentence there, which is contrary to French law.
Einhorn was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for the murder of Helen “Holly” Maddux — a crime he denies even though police found her corpse stuffed in a trunk in his closet.
After 16 years in hiding, Einhorn was tracked down and arrested at his home in June 1997. But in December, a French court refused to extradite Einhorn, citing a French law that would have required a retrial in Pennsylvania.
Einhorn, a prominent anti-war campaigner in the 1960s, was courted by an international network of scientists, corporate sponsors and wealthy benefactors drawn to his vision of a New Age. He became a consultant for Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania and was later a Harvard fellow.