States Still Jousting Over John Collins

States Still Jousting Over John Collins

By William B. Treml

(News Police Reporter)

The legal jousting between Michigan and California for John Norman Collins, convicted of murdering coed Karen Sue Beineman, is almost certain to continue into 1971.

That’s how the latest series of moves and counter-moves shape up as Michigan Gov. William G. Milliken and California Gov. Ronald Reagan continue to circle the complex legal situation.

Reagan’s office more than a month ago made an official request that Michigan authorities release Collins for extradition to California to stand trial in the 1969 slaying of 17-year-old Roxie Ann Phillips. Attorney General Frank Kelley, although acknowledging the proper order of the California extradition request, warned Gov. Milliken that to release Collins, even temporarily, from the life prison term he is now serving, could be interpreted as an “executive pardon.” Then, if the former Eastern Michigan University senior were to be found not guilty of the California slaying, he could be a free man, Kelley said.

With that possibility in mind, Gov. Milliken delayed a decision on the extradition and yesterday Joseph H. Thibodeau, chief legal adviser to Milliken, said new complications have further delayed an extradition decision.

Thibodeau said the original extradition request from California has been found to have some faulty provisions and it has been returned to Gov. Reagan’s office for correction.

The California attorney general has now sent the papers back to the Monterey County prosecutor in Salinas, and it is expected to be several more weeks before new papers are drawn up and resubmitted to Gov. Milliken.

Attorney Neil H. Fink, who is now Collins’ sole defense attorney, will be notified of the provisions of the extradition request when the new documents arrive in Michigan and an opportunity for the defense to reply will be given. Hearings on the matter could take some time.

Thibodeau pointed out yesterday that it now has been established on firm legal ground that extradition of Collins to California would not be considered an act of executive clemency on the part of Michigan. No matter what the outcome of the California trial, Collins would be returned to this state to complete his life term, Thibodeau said.

Collins, now 23, was convicted last August of the 1969 strangulation slaying of Miss Beineman, then an Eastern Michigan University freshman. The Circuit Court trial before Judge John W. Conlin and a jury was the longest and most expensive criminal proceeding in the history of the county.

Miss Beineman was the seventh young woman to be murdered in the Ann Arbor-Ypsilanti area in a two-year period. Prosecutor William F. Delhey said after last summer’s trial that Collins has been the “only serious suspect” in several of the other slayings but there was not enough evidence to bring him to trial.