United States v. Noriega

Case Overview

Affirmed the drug trafficking convictions of Panamanian General Manuel Noriega, brought to the United States after the 1989 invasion of Panama, holding he could not claim head-of-state immunity the Executive Branch had never recognized and that his status as a prisoner of war under the Third Geneva Convention did not bar civilian criminal prosecution. The leading teaching case on prosecuting a foreign head of state in U.S. courts.