Canadian convict to remain in States

Canadian Convict to Remain in States

From AP and local staff reporters

Detroit -- A federal magistrate recommend that John Norman Collins, convicted in the slaying of an Eastern Michigan University student, continue serving a life prison term in MIchigan. 

Collins has sought to be returned to his native Canada and would have been eligible for such a transfer under an international treaty. 

But Magistrate Thomas Carlson in a report to the U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said Friday that Collins had "failed to establish any violations of federally secured constitutional rights."

Collins is serving a life term at the Marquette State Prison for the death of Karen Sue Beineman, one of the seven young women abducted and slain in 1968-1969 in the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. He was convicted in 1970 and the other six murders were never solved. 

Collins was granted transfer to Canada in 1981, but it was rescinded after public protests. He filed suit against Michigan officials in 1985, saying the denial violated several of his rights and was discriminatory, but Carlson disagreed. 

In 1981, Collins made an official request to be transferred to the Huron Valley Men's Facility in York Township but that request was denied. Gail Light, director pf public relations for the Department of Corrections, said the denial was made because it was considered unwise to return Collins to Washtenaw County where the murder for which he was serving life was committed. 

Five of the letters in the Collins' file are from Barbara Beineman, an aunt of Karen Sue Beineman, Collin's victim. Mrs. Beineman asks in the letter that Collins not be transferred to Canada and requests that she and her family be notified if Collins escapes, is sent to a camp, or has custody change. 

News Staff Reporter William B. Treml contributed to this story.