The Court of Appeal in Turin, Italy, has partially granted the United States government’s request to extradite Harris County capital murder defendant Lee Gilley, according to a copy of the Italian court order reviewed and translated by KPRC 2 News.
However, the court has only granted extradition for a charge of murder, as opposed to capital murder. Gilley is charged in the Oct. 2024 strangulation death of his pregnant wife Christa Bauer.
Under Texas law, the punishment for capital murder is either the death penalty or life without parole.
For months, the Italian court has sought assurances that Gilley will not be executed if convicted in the U.S. The court found the repeated assurances from prosecutors on that issue to be “adequate,” but that leaves the only other option for punishment to be life without parole.
In the Monday court order, the Italian court ruled that life without parole under Texas law violates the Italian constitution.
“It would deprive the prisoner of any real hope of release and would, in substance, seek their permanent exclusion from society,” the court wrote, according to a translation of the order.
The court only granted extradition for the alleged murder of Christa Bauer, not her unborn child, according to the order. A murder charge in Texas as a first-degree felony instead carries a punishment range of five to 99 years or life.
The court went on to note that unlike a life without parole sentence in Texas, the murder sentence range allows the eligibility for parole after the prisoner has served half the sentence or 30 years, whichever is shorter.
“The death of the fetus, which was not yet capable of surviving independently because the pregnancy was at an early stage, does not constitute a second murder under Italian law, but rather the separate offense of non-consensual termination of pregnancy,” the court wrote, according to a translation of the order.
Gilley’s Italian defense team plans to appeal the court’s ruling, according to Italian media. He remains in Italian custody.
KPRC 2 News has reached out to the Harris County District Attorney’s Office as it remains unclear what next steps prosecutors could take. He’s currently indicted for capital murder
Gilley left the U.S. in May, weeks before he was scheduled to stand trial, and claimed asylum in Italy. He has told the Italian court he’s being unfairly prosecuted in Texas.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
