Ex-Sen. Carpenter Ordered Untied From Bed, Court Says
A high court said Friday that it has ordered a former California state senator who was convicted on political corruption charges untied from his hospital bed, where he is dying of cancer.
Paul Carpenter, 66, was convicted in Sacramento on Dec. 1, 1993, of conspiracy, mail fraud and obstruction of justice in a complicated bribery plot. He faced up to seven years in prison but left the United States before his sentencing.
He was arrested in Costa Rica earlier this year and faces extradition back to the United States.
Before his arrest, he told friends he had come to Costa Rica to seek medical treatment he couldn’t find in the United States. He has terminal prostate cancer.
When the United States requested his extradition, Costa Rican authorities tied the former Democratic senator to his hospital bed with two steel straps to prevent a possible escape.
The Constitutional Court said in a news release Friday that it had ordered the straps removed.
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