``But unless the French put him in prison

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The court ruled in December 1997 that Einhorn could not be extradited to the United States because of incompatibilities between U.S. and French law. The judges also cited shortcomings of a 1993 Philadelphia murder trial in which an absent Einhorn was found guilty and sentenced to life for murdering Helen ``Holly'' Maddux. The hearing is expected to be brief, lasting only a few minutes, but momentous because if Einhorn prevails and extradition is again denied, he stands a good chance of being able to stay in France forever. Lawyers on both sides agree that a U.S. appeal of a decision in Einhorn's favor would likely be unsuccessful because French appellate courts rarely overturn lower-court decisions. Even if Einhorn was ordered extradited, he would be able to stay in France, probably free on bail, until he has exhausted his appeals. That could take months, even years. ``The bottom line is they are either going to grant a request to return him here or not,'' said Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham. ``He can take an appeal, and we can take an appeal from any decision that they make.'' In either case, ``nobody will be bringing him back in shackles right away.'' If extradition to the United States is denied, prosecutors said privately, the U.S. Justice and State Departments will urge the French government to deport Einhorn on grounds that he is in that country illegally. He entered France with documents in the assumed name of Eugene Mallon. ``We've been waiting 20 years for him,'' Abraham said last week. ``I've been in this office 7 1/2 years. I think about Ira every couple of weeks. I never forget about him, because his is a particularly galling case. He's so smug about it, so arrogant. He conveniently forgets that he's a convicted murderer.'' Tuesday's ruling will cap an extraordinary drama that began 21 years ago when Maddux, a former cheerleader and Bryn Mawr College graduate, disappeared. In 1978, her decomposed and bludgeoned body was found in a steamer trunk in Einhorn's Powelton Village apartment. Einhorn, a hippie guru adored by Philadelphia's upper crust, was on the verge of going to trial for her murder in 1981 when he jumped bail. Twelve years later, while he was still on the run, a Philadelphia jury convicted him in absentia. It was not until June 1997 that police caught up with him living outside the French village of Champagne-Mouton. A French court denied the first U.S. extradition request, saying the trial in absentia violated his human rights because he was not guaranteed a new trial if found. Last year, after the Pennsylvania legislature passed a law that could grant Einhorn that new trial, Justice Department lawyers requested a second extradition hearing. At that hearing, last month, Einhorn's lawyers, Dominique Tricaud and Dominique Delthil, presented a repeat of the arguments, attacking the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office and the U.S. system of justice, that won their case the first time. They also argued that only a court, not the legislature, could grant Einhorn a new trial and that the new Pennsylvania law was therefore unconstitutional. In a telephone interview from Paris last week, Tricaud said: ``I am very optimistic. I think this is pretty much the end of the line if he wins. It is legally possible to bring another extradition proceeding, but, usually, that is when there is a new fact. The court would not look favorably on a third extradition proceeding.'' Aram Kevorkian, an attorney representing the Maddux family, said he was ``discouraged'' after Einhorn's last hearing ``because of all the bad-mouthing of Philadelphia justice.'' Einhorn's French lawyers called Abraham a ``lyncher'' and her assistant, Joel Rosen, a ``liar,'' recalled Kevorkian, a graduate of West Philadelphia High School and the University of Pennsylvania who has been working in Paris since 1961. ``I'm willing to keep my hopes up, because some people who know this case well think maybe the judges will be sensitive to the fact that it would create a diplomatic incident if, twice in a row, they refused extradition,'' Kevorkian said in a telephone interview. ``I, unfortunately, see this as the end of the road, as far as the courts go. The only thing that I think could happen [if Einhorn wins] is if the French government expelled him as an undesirable foreigner.'' Richard DiBenedetto, head of extraditions in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, said if the French were to decide to deport Einhorn for illegal entry and using false documents to obtain a French visa, he could be expelled to any nation of his choice that agrees to admit him. ``But unless the French put him in prison, I don't think he's going to stick around,'' DiBenedetto said. ``He'll slip out of the country if he has the opportunity to run. I have always felt we are going to get him back, someday, someplace. I haven't changed on that.'' Abraham said she will not ask the Pennsylvania courts to void Einhorn's 1993 conviction until he comes me back to the United States and asks for a new trial. Assembling in Bordeaux for Tuesday's hearing will be three of Holly Maddux' sisters. Meg Wakeman, Buffy Hall and Mary Maddux traveled to France from the United States over the weekend. ``Holly needs to be represented, and our parents aren't here to do it,'' said Wakeman, a nurse from Seattle. ``If it's a negative decision against us, you keep doing what you need to do. If there is anything we've learned over 21 1/2 years, it is patience. You just have to keep working for what you think is right.''