Marcus Bebb-Jones, who was accused by the US authorities for killing his wife Sabrina in 1997, will be extradited to the United States, a UK High Court has ruled. The judge ruled that extraditing the former poker champion to the United States will not breach his human rights.
The British courts were due to decide on Bebb-Jones’ future last month, but the decision was held up after his lawyer, Ben Cooper, sought assurance from the US authorities that if he faced trial in the United States, he would not get the death penalty. He was told by the US authorities that they would not be seeking the maximum punishment.
“If the defendant is found guilty of murder in the first degree, which is the charge he faces, the maximum penalty would be a term of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” said the ruling judge Howard Riddle at the City of Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London. “The defense argues that a whole life sentence which, in real terms, is irreducible violates a prisoner’s rights.”
“I accept the possibility that some people would consider such a sentence to be grossly disproportionate,” he said. “However, it is not obviously or clearly grossly disproportionate. On these facts the prospect of a whole life term falls short of inhuman and degrading treatment.”
Marcus Bebb-Jones lived with his wife and infant son in Colorado in the 1990’s. He is believed to have murdered his wife and buried her body in a national park in Colorado. He then went on a weekend of frenzied gambling, drinking and sex using his wife’s credit cards in Vegas, before trying to commit suicide.
After that failed attempt, he fled with his son to England and took up professional poker. Bebb-Jones was well known on the live poker circuit and came in the money in several tournaments. He has since lost all his winnings and is living on benefits, according to the Kidderminster Shuttle.
