Suicide-bid woman must stand trial in US over death

After months of legal wrangling over the legality of her extradition to face charges for the October 2005 death of Peter Cambra, Lord Justice Aikens has rejected Richen Turner’s last-ditch High Court challenge, deciding it would not be “unjust or oppressive” to send her back.

The judge, sitting with Mr Justice Globe, said Ms Turner, 42, of Merton Lane, Sheffield, was “adamant” she would “find some way of ending it” if her extradition went ahead, and had already made one serious suicide attempt with sedatives on July 10.

That left her in a temporarily comatose state, London’s High Court heard, and she has since been cared for at a psychiatric ward in Sheffield’s Michael Carlisle Centre.

She had told her psychiatrist “if she was extradited she would definitely kill herself in the 10 days that would elapse between the order being made and the extradition being carried out”, the judge said.

But such risks could be controlled by those treating her – whether in the UK or in Florida, he told the court.

Nor was there evidence she would not face a fair trial.

Ms Turner is accused by US state authorities of being over the drink-drive limit when she hit Mr Cambra’s vehicle in Broward County, Florida after going through red lights.

US prosecutors have repeatedly called for her to stand trial but her lawyers have insisted she is not mentally fit to be extradited.

In May last year a judge approved her extradition, but she challenged the ruling, leading to a series of High Court hearings.