Brazil May Ask Limits For Pang Extradition May Hinge On Length Of Sentence For Arson
Brazil’s Supreme Court may demand a limit on any possible prison sentence before allowing arson-murder suspect Martin Pang’s return here for trial.
Pang, 39, is charged with arson and four counts of first-degree murder in a Jan. 5 warehouse fire that killed four firefighters. Authorities contend Pang, whose adoptive parents owned the Mary Pang Food Products warehouse, hoped to benefit financially from the blaze.
Pang’s extradition could take at least three months even with full cooperation from Brazilian officials, said Artur Lavigne, a Brazilian criminal-defense attorney whose firm is working unofficially with Pang’s Seattle attorneys, Allen Ressler and John Henry Browne.
Lavigne said his country’s high court is unlikely to release Pang if he would face more than 20 years imprisonment in the United States.
In Brazil, the maximum penalty for arranging a fire that unintentionally kills people is 16 to 20 years in prison, he told a Seattle Times reporter in Rio de Janeiro.
“This isn’t considered homicide here,” Lavigne said.
If Pang had been apprehended in the United States and convicted, he could have faced a life term.
But Brazil will not extradite him unless the United States agrees he will not face life imprisonment, said Ezio Pires, a spokesman for the Brazilian Supreme Court.
The court will be asked to require U.S. limits on Pang’s sentence, Lavigne said, under a section of Brazilian law that requires equal treatment for Brazilians and foreigners.
King County prosecutors and area law experts differ on whether Brazil can hold up extradition by demanding sentence concessions for Pang.
Lavigne said he visited Pang at the federal detention center Wednesday and thought he seemed worn out.
“He seems fragile,” the attorney said. “He seems not really sure of what he wants. He doesn’t come off at all like a hard guy.”
Pang, a martial-arts expert and aspiring actor, has been dependent on his family financially virtually all his life.