Extradition Treaty between Canada and the United States of America, especially because it was not at all clear – in the Spanish version of the Draft which contained the text of article 6 of the Treaty – whether the requesting State (in this case, the United States of America) should not have officially provided assurances that the death penalty would not be applied. Moreover, I requested to be given the possibility of acquainting myself with the text of article 25 of the 1985 Extradition Act, to which reference was made in paragraph 2.3 of the Draft but which was not reproduced anywhere. Such a decision affecting the right to life and placing that right, in the last analysis, in the hands of the Government which, for reasons of penal policy, decides whether or not to seek assurances that the death penalty will not be carried out, constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of the right to life forbidden by article 6, paragraph 1, of the Covenant and, consequently, a misreading by Canada of its obligations under this article of the Covenant. Ch. Chanet 3. I also requested the Secretariat to clarify exactly of which offence the author of the communication had been found guilty, in so far as a number of matters were not clear, especially when working with the Spanish version of the text: F. DISSENTING OPINION BY MR. FRANCISCO JOSE AGUILAR URBINA I. Inability to join in the majority opinion 1. I requested the Secretariat to clarify various defects in the Draft in respect of which no explanation had been given despite the fact that I had already requested their elucidation in advance. I asked, inter alia, for explanations regarding the system followed in the State of Pennsylvania for sentencing a person. In paragraph 2.1 of the Draft it was stated that "the jury recommended the death sentence". From my first statement during the discussion, I commented that there could be three possibilities, and that whether I joined in the majority or opposed it depended on which procedure was applied. Those possibilities were: (a) In paragraph 2.1 of the Draft it was stated that Joseph John Kindler had been "convicted ... of first degree murder and kidnapping". b Nevertheless, in other parts of the Draft, as well as in the Amendments, it was merely stated that Mr. Kindler had been convicted of committing a murder. The first aspect that remained unclear was the type of murder concerned, since there was confusion in the terms used which in practice made it impossible to know what sentence hung over the author of the communication. In some parts it was stated that it was first degree murder, in others murder or murder with aggravating circumstances; in one of the paragraphs of the draft it was even stated that he had been convicted of having committed "a most serious crime".c Faced with such confusion, I considered that the Committee could not have taken a decision until the acts for which Mr. Kindler had been convicted had been made absolutely clear. Although it is not for the Human Rights Committee to express an opinion on the procedure followed in the trial of the author of the communication in a country which is not a party to the Optional Protocol and which has not abolished the death penalty, it is important to know whether the acts imputed to him constitute "most serious crimes" within the meaning of article 6, paragraph 2, of the Covenant. (a) That the jury could pronounce only on the guilt of the accused and that it was left to the judge, as a matter of law, to impose the sentence; (b) That the jury not only pronounced on the innocence or guilt of the accused but also recommended the penalty, with the judge, however, remaining completely free to impose the sentence in keeping with his assessment of the case in conformity with law (in the terms in which paragraph 2.1 was drafted, this would appear to be the procedure practised by the State of Pennsylvania); (c) That the jury ruled the innocence or guilt of the accused and, at the same time, decided upon the sentence to be imposed, not by way of a recommendation but as a penalty which the judge would necessarily be obliged to declare, not being able to change it in any circumstance but simply serving as a mouthpiece for the jury. (b) In this connection, I asked for clarification, in the first place, as to whether the murder of which the author of the communication was convicted was the result of the kidnapping, of which he was also convicted, or whether the two offences were separate. This latter possibility can be inferred from the different treatment that has been given to the two offences in the Views, especially in so far as the "kidnapping" is mentioned only in paragraph 2.1.d I therefore asked to be informed whether the murder of which Mr. Kindler was convicted resulted from the kidnapping. In that connection, it should be borne in mind that basically there are three possibilities that can be imputed to the author of the communication as constituting murder – in the first two places, first degree murder – but which differ in seriousness for the purposes of the implementation of article 6, paragraph 2, of the Covenant: Consequently, in so far as the crux of the matter was whether Canada, in granting Mr. Kindler's extradition, had exposed him, necessarily or foreseeably, to a violation of article 6 of the Covenant, I was unable to give an opinion until that point was clarified, orally and in writing. It was necessary for me to know for certain what conditions governed the imposition of the death penalty. However, the Secretariat explained that the author had informed the Committee that the recommendation of the jury was binding (and this is stated in paragraph 2.1 of the Views),a [...] that the question had been addressed in the Canadian courts where it had been established that such was the system applied in Pennsylvania. 2. I also asked for explanations concerning the powers of the Canadian Minister of Justice under the a Views, para. 2.1. 128 b Draft, para. 2.1 (emphasis added). c Draft, para. 14.4. d Views, para. 2.1.