The effect of foreign criminal convictions under American repeat offender statutes: A case against the use of foreign crimes in determining habitual criminal status

This Note discusses the propriety of employing criminal convictions obtained from courts in foreign countries as predicate offenses under repeat offender statutes in the United States. Although some recidivist statutes address this issue explicitly, many other statutes leave the question open. The author suggests that legislatures and courts addressing this issue should realize the constitutional concerns of using foreign convictions for this purpose, as well as the practical difficulties involved in doing so. For these reasons, they should refrain from using foreign convictions for sentence enhancement. Alternatively, the author suggests that prior foreign convictions should be subject to strict scrutiny under a ''fundamental fairness'' standard before being employed in such a manner.