US-born Irish citizen could face death penalty

A US-born murder suspect could become the first Irish citizen in recent history to face the death penalty if found guilty of the contract killing of his wife.

James Sullivan is expected to go on trial in Georgia early next year accused of the 1987 murder of his estranged wife Lita, who was shot dead in the Atlanta home the couple shared.

Mr Sullivan was on the FBI’s most wanted list for four years prior to his capture in Thailand in 2002.

The 61-year-old, originally from Boston, spent 19 months fighting extradition, claiming that as an Irish citizen he should not be returned to a country where he faced the death penalty.

But a Thai court dismissed the appeal and he was returned in March.

Mr Sullivan, who inherited a relative’s business and sold it for $5m in 1983, is expected once again to invoke his Irish citizenship if found guilty of hiring a hitman to kill his wife. He was granted an Irish passport in 1994, the same year he was ordered to pay $4m to his wife’s family, who took a successful wrongful death action against him.

However, he is unlikely to receive consular assistance unless he revokes his US citizenship, though the possibility of him languishing on Death Row may complicate matters politically.

Mr Sullivan is due to go on trial early next year but prosecutors, some of whom have followed the case for 17 years and who have watched the suspected wife killer evade arrest and conviction, have no idea what will happen next.

Lita Sullivan’s father said: “It’s time for justice to be served. But we are still missing a family member.”

Prosecutors claim Mr Sullivan had every reason to kill his 35-year-old wife. He wanted to avoid a messy divorce and to carry on affairs with mistresses. It also alleged he felt restrained from building a future in the upmarket Palm Beach area of Florida because his wife was black and he came from a working class area of Boston. Mrs Sullivan was killed on January 16, 1987, hours before a hearing in the contested divorce.

The fugitive was a prime suspect from the start but lived in luxury in his time on the run, in Florida, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, and finally Thailand, where he was captured after someone recognised him as one of America’s Most Wanted.

His lawyers argue there is no direct evidence to link him to the shooting, that he was enjoying dinner in Palm Beach with his wife-to-be at the time.

But in 1998, a witness said she recognised the accused as the man who paid $25,000 to her former boyfriend, Phillip Anthony Harwood, who pleaded guilty to voluntary man- slaughter of Mrs Sullivan and got a 20-year jail sentence in exchange for testifying against Mr Sullivan.

Two years before he received his Irish passport, Mr Sullivan went on trial for violating interstate commerce laws by allegedly arranging his wife’s killing by phone. The case was dismissed. His lawyer Don Samuel said: “He was tried once, and the court found so little evidence it didn’t go to a jury.”