You can't really make a case for unusual, given the state of the US prison system.

Over-imprisonment isn't the reason, fear of death is. The fact that the US prison system is rampant doesn't really make the living condition of one given inmate unusually cruel. The high risk of them catching a deadly disease does.

I think what GP is saying is that Kim’s probable treatment in the US criminal justice system would not be unusual, it would in fact be the usual treatment for US inmates. Inmates in the US regularly fear for and lose their lives, pandemic or no pandemic.

The cruelty point stands though.

The extradition case is made in the context of New Zealand though.

Because of COVID or just the state of the prison system in general? Personally, I would say either case, but the system itself is not going to agree with it. There have been reports of some people allowed to stay in house arrest rather than reporting to jail.

That doesn’t seem to work in the context of MLAT, although I imagine that it depends a little on the country and the case, even though it shouldn’t.

Note also that the ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” is actually in the US constitution.

See also: Assange.

The process against Assange in the UK looked like a particularly horrible example of a kangaroo court.

But New Zealand isn't the UK.

I know nothing about the process against Kim or laws in NZ, but the comparison to Assange doesn't work.

The Five Eyes have each others’ backs. As we can see with Assange, the law doesn’t even factor in to it.