France has very limited extradition agreements with the US because of the death penalty, it is regarded here as cruel and unusual punishment.
The treatment of the prisoners in Guantanamo and other US penal institutions has shown torture to be common practice. The lack of significant prosecutions related to the evidence available is also telling.
The lack of habeas corpus is another reason to refuse extradition of both foreign and US citizens. There is good cause to believe anyone extradited to the US will be subjected to inhuman treatment, hence asylum should be granted.
The use of solitary confinement and the presumption of guilt highlighted by the Manning affair, this has also been shown to be widespread throughout the US penal system.
Conditions within US prisons could also be deemed not to conform in general to standards set in the Western world.
Torture
The so-called 'war on terror' has led to an erosion of fundamental human rights, highlighted by the increasing use and acceptance of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
We have seen and heard testimonies of 'terrorist suspects', held or formerly held in places of detention such as Guantánamo Bay and Bagram. We know that such places of detention exist in several locations globally. We know that this new trend for torture must stop.
Penal System
Conditions in US prisons often fall below the Minimum Rules and ICCPR requirements, violating basic human rights—as confirmed by, among others, the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons ("Prison Commission"), a US-based bipartisan, non-profit organization that monitors US correctional facilities.
Death penalty
Ohio has announced it will no longer be using the known common anesthetic for lethal injection, and is switching to a drug used to euthanize pets.
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said the reason for the change is because the supply of the drug normally used for executions, sodium thiopental, is running low.
That drug was already in short supply when its only U.S. manufacturer announced last week it would no longer produce it.
Instead, a single, powerful dose of pentobarbital—used by veterinarians to euthanize dogs and cats—will be administered to prisoners who face the death penalty.
Currently, Oklahoma is the only other state to use pentobarbital.
Civilized? Hard to imagine...no?
Solitary confinement
"It’s an awful thing, solitary," John McCain wrote of his five and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam—more than two years of it spent in isolation in a fifteen-by-fifteen-foot cell, unable to communicate with other P.O.W.s except by tap code, secreted notes, or by speaking into an enamel cup pressed against the wall. "It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment."
No kidding. It is torture.
It is time that friends and allies of the US made their feelings known, and one way to do so is reexamine the terms for extradition to the US. Until the US changes the way it treats its prisoners both before and after trail then we cannot sanction extradition of US or foreign nationals. We cannot even guarantee them of a speedy and fair trail.
I'm sorry but the truth of the matter is that many viable arguments against extradition can be made. Asylum could well be granted when the risks are properly assessed.