Locked Up: Case That Pitted U.S. vs. Israel

Finally, it's official. Two months after prosecutors agreed to a plea bargain with Maryland killer Samuel Sheinbein, an Israeli court officially sentenced him to 24 years in prison for the 1997 killing of fellow teen Alfred Tello. So ends a two-year struggle that strained U.S.-Israeli relations and caused Israel to reevaluate its self-conception as a state of refuge. It started in the fall of 1997, when Sheinbein fled Maryland to Israel soon after the discovery of Tello's burned and dismembered body. Preferring to take his chances with the Israeli justice system, Sheinbein fought extradition back to the U.S. In a decision that was unpopular with both the Israeli and U.S. governments, Israel's supreme court sided with Sheinbein, and said he would stand trial there. Sheinbein agreed to the plea in August, and a court spent the next two months reviewing the arrangement before finally approving it Sunday.

For some, including Tello's mother, 24 years seems nothing like justice for the horrible crime, especially since Sheinbein could be out in as little as 14. Still, Israeli prosecutors point out that the sentence is one of the harshest ever given to a minor in that country (Sheinbein was 17 at the time of the murder). And it's likely that Sheinbein can never go home again: Maryland prosecutors say they will press a case against him if he ever returns to the U.S.