Court urged to drop death sentence against Longo

SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The death sentence against family killer Christian Longo should be thrown out because an FBI agent misled him into returning to the United States from Mexico, a country that does not have the death penalty, Longo's lawyer said Tuesday.

The Oregon Supreme Court heard arguments on whether to uphold the murder convictions and death sentence against Longo, once one of the most wanted fugitives in America after killing his wife and three young children on the Oregon coast.

Rankin Johnson, a Portland attorney representing Longo, also argued that Oregon's death penalty law is unconstitutional and that Longo's convictions should be overturned because of errors at trial.

A Lincoln County jury in April 2003 sentenced Longo to death for killing his wife MaryJane Longo, 34, and their children, Zachery 4, Sadie, 3, and Madison, 2, and dumping their bodies into the ocean at Christmas time in 2001.

Much of the discussion at the Supreme Court hearing centered on whether Longo's rights were violated in the way he was returned to the U.S. after fleeing to Mexico.

Johnson said an FBI agent who accompanied Mexican police during Longo's January 2002 arrest failed to tell Longo he could request extradition proceedings, a move that likely would have spared Longo the death sentence.

Mexico generally doesn't agree to extradite U.S. fugitives unless local prosecutors first pledge not to seek the death penalty, Johnson said.

In this case, Longo took the FBI agent's advice to return with him to the United States to avoid spending time in one of Mexico's dilapidated prisons.

However, Rolf Moan, an assistant attorney general who argued the state's case, told the Supreme Court that Longo had voluntarily agreed to return. Further, Moan said, U.S. treaties with Mexico don't specifically require that fugitives be notified of all their legal options, such as requesting extradition proceedings.

The Supreme Court didn't indicate when it would rule.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)