Can a US state extradite a British executive? Or does it have to come from the Departmentof Justice/Washington

Answer 1

Any state can apply for extradition but it must be correlated with both DOJ and the State Department.

Answer 2

Extradition from another country would be a federal agreement not a state level agreement.

Extradition to federations

The federal structure of some nations, such as the United States (US), can pose particular problems with respect to extraditions. This is because foreign countries do not have official relations with sub-national units such as the individual states composing the US; rather, they have relations with the federal government. This means, for example, that the federal government may, in a particular case, certify to a foreign nation that the death penalty will not be sought, and that if it is pronounced it will not be applied, but some contend that such a commitment is not binding on state courts when the matter is of state jurisdiction. On the other hand, should an individual state decide to execute a person extradited, the federal government would be in violation of its commitment with respect to foreign nations and to what it has agreed upon by treaty.

Less important problems can arise due to differing qualifications for crimes. For instance, in the United States, crossing state lines is a prerequisite for certain federal crimes (otherwise crimes such as murder etc. are handled by state governments except in certain circumstances such as the killing of a federal official). This transportation clause is, understandably, absent from the laws of many countries. Extradition treaties or subsequent diplomatic correspondence often include language providing that such criteria should not be taken into account when checking if the crime is one in the country from which extradition should.

Answer 3

States can extradite people to other states, but to extradite someone out of the country, which is what I think you're talking about, it would have to go through the federal court system.