Rochelle Manning Dead of Heart Attack While Awaiting Extradition to America

Just over a week before she was supposed to have been extradited to the United States to stand trial in connection with a murder, imprisoned immigrant Rochelle Manning died suddenly last Friday from what is believed to have been a heart attack.

Manning, who was 54, had been unsuccessfully fighting extradition to the United States, where her husband, Robert, was convicted in connection with the same 1980 murder of a California secretary by a booby-trapped parcel addressed to her employer.

The Mannings’ fingerprints were found on the parcel and instruction sheet.

Robert Manning, 43, was convicted in a California court in October and is serving a life sentence in prison.

Rochelle Manning collapsed on Friday morning an hour after roll call. Although suicide was discussed and ruled out, a post-mortem investigation was to be conducted.

Her daughter told journalists that her mother was a strong-willed woman who would not have committed suicide.

The Mannings, who had been followers of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and early members of his Jewish Defense League, lived in the West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba after they made aliyah 10 years ago.

Rochelle Manning, who had been in the Neve Tirza jail for the past three years, had fought extradition, saying she believed she would not be permitted to wear modest garments and head coverings in an American prison in accord with her Orthodox Jewish religious beliefs.

Earlier this year, she lost her final appeal to Israel’s high court, after the U.S. Justice Department had given assurances to Israeli authorities that her religious needs would be met. But in a special gesture, her extradition had been deferred until after Passover.

After the Friday morning roll call, Manning said her morning prayers and talked to her 20-year-old daughter on the telephone. Shortly thereafter, she collapsed and was rushed to the prison hospital, where doctors worked unsuccessfully for 40 minutes to revive her.