An American woman who fled to the Netherlands with her daughter after being accused of murdering her ex-husband will not be extradited unless her home state rules out applying the death penalty.

Kendra Leigh Wilson, 33, claimed asylum in March and spent three weeks at the reception centre in Ter Apel, Groningen, with her four-year-old daughter before being arrested by Dutch police. Since then the pair have been held in custody.

The district court in Groningen decided on Tuesday not to grant extradition while it sought “further information from the American authorities, which should make clear that the death penalty will not be applied”.

Wilson was on the run after being accused of murdering her ex-partner, 29-year-old Connor Lloyd, who was shot dead in the driveway of his home in Lyman, South Carolina, in August 2021.

It is not clear how she managed to fly to the Netherlands while wanted for Lloyd’s murder. Dutch media reported in April that Wilson and her daughter registered at Ter Apel under their own names.

Her mother, Cynthia Wilson, was arrested in March as part of the same investigation.

South Carolina uses capital punishment in murder cases, but the state did not execute any convicts between 2011 and 2024 because it was unable to buy the chemicals used for lethal injections. Earlier this year it carried out its first execution by firing squad.