Pacileo v. Walker case brief

Pacileo v. Walker case brief summary
449 U.S. 86 (1980)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Petitioner sheriff filed a petition for certiorari with the court, challenging a judgment of the Supreme Court of California, the sending state, that directed a state trial court to conduct an inquiry into the conditions of the receiving state's penal system, before extraditing respondent prisoner pursuant to the California governor's warrant of arrest and rendition.

CASE FACTS
The prisoner escaped from a prison in the receiving state. He was eventually apprehended in California. The governor of the receiving state requested his arrest and rendition, and the California governor complied, issuing an arrest and rendition warrant. The warrant was served on the sheriff. The prisoner brought a successful challenge to the issuance of the warrant in the state court system. That court directed its lower courts to investigate the prison conditions in the receiving state.

DISCUSSION

• The court granted the sheriff's petition for certiorari, reversed the judgment, and remanded the case. 
• Under U.S. Constitutional Article IV, § 2, cl. 2, after the sending state's governor had issued the warrant, that state's courts lacked power to inquire into the receiving state's penal system. 
• The governor's grant of extradition was prima facie evidence that the constitutional and statutory requirements for extradition had been met.

CONCLUSION
The court granted the petition for certiorari, reversed the judgment directing the lower courts to investigate the receiving state's prison system, and remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with its opinion.

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