France to Extradite Fugitive to U.S.

A French appeals court agreed Thursday to extradite convicted murderer Ira Einhorn to the United States, on condition that he be tried again and that the death penalty not be applied if he is convicted.

The state of Pennsylvania, where he would be returned, has promised to meet both conditions.

The ruling, which is subject to further appeals, overturned earlier court refusals to extradite Einhorn, whose case has become a cause celebre on both sides of the Atlantic because of his former fame as a 1970s cult figure, the brutality of the murder for which he was convicted in absentia in Philadelphia and the vacillation over his extradition.

Einhorn has lived with his Swedish wife in the small southwestern village of Champagne-Mouton since he entered France with a false passport in 1993.

He has been wanted by U.S. authorities since he jumped bail in 1981 just before his trial in connection with the slaying of his girlfriend, Helen “Holly” Maddux, who was bludgeoned to death in 1977. Her body was left in a trunk in Einhorn’s apartment until being discovered 18 months later.