Deukmejian Again Asks for Ng’s Return

As a victims’ rights group flooded Canadian officials with thousands of letters demanding the extradition of accused murderer Charles Ng to California for trial, Gov. George Deukmejian Saturday reiterated the same plea.

“A decent respect for human life and for the rights of the survivors of Ng’s alleged victims compels that he be sent here without delay to answer the charges against him,” Deukmejian said in his weekly radio address.

Ng, 27, a former Marine who is accused of 12 grisly sex-torture slayings in Calaveras County, is the subject of extradition hearings in Edmonton, Alberta. He is serving a 4 1/2-year sentence in Canada for armed robbery and assault.

Could Face Death Penalty

If Ng is extradited to California, he could face the death penalty if convicted of the murder charges. Article 6 of the Canada-U.S. Extradition Treaty, signed in 1971, allows Canada to refuse to extradite a person unless the requesting state promises not to impose the death penalty.

Deukmejian wrote to Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in May, saying delays in Ng’s extradition “would have a negative effect on the evidence that has been gathered in the case.”

He said Ng’s case has mobilized victims’ rights groups in Canada. One group, Victims of Violence, has begun a campaign to gather a million letters demanding Ng’s extradition.

Burden of Proof

“I respect the sovereignty of the Canadian judicial system,” Deukmejian said. “I only ask that officials in California be given an opportunity to meet the burden of proof imposed by law.” U.S. Department of Justice officials and California prosecutors “are pursuing every avenue available” to have Ng returned to California for trial, Deukmejian said.

The prosecutors have maintained that Ng and his alleged accomplice, the late Leonard Lake, had committed a number of murders at Lake’s remote cabin in Calaveras County, about 120 miles east of San Francisco.