Against The Will Of Navajo Nation, US Moves Forward With Execution Of Native American Man

The U.S. government is moving forward with plans to execute Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row, next week. This plan flies in the face of the Navajo Nation’s wishes, as the tribe has long decried any and all capital punishment, and indicates a willingness by the government to go against a promise to recognize the sovereignty of Native American tribes.

Mitchell, 38, was indicted in 2001 for the murder of a 63-year-old Navajo woman, Alyce Slim, and her granddaughter, Tiffany Lee, 9, on an Arizona reservation.

The Navajo Nation has repeatedly called for Mitchell’s sentence to be commuted to life in prison without parole due to the death penalty going against its religious and cultural beliefs. Marlene Slim, the daughter and granddaughter of Mitchell’s victims, has also voiced opposition to his execution.

“The United States is taking stock of its history of racial injustice, including the many traumas perpetrated against American Indians,” Carl Slater, a leader for the Navajo Nation, wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “To carry out Lezmond Mitchell’s execution, despite the profound infringement on tribal sovereignty that his case represents, would be a grave injustice.”

Federal law requires the government to pursue tribe permission in order to execute a Native American convicted of crimes against another Native American on tribal land.

The Navajo Nation has never granted this permissions and Slater states that Mitchell’s case is the only time in history that the government has sought a loophole.

Mitchell was prosecuted on charges of carjacking resulting in death, a crime under standard jurisdiction that does not require a tribe’s consent.

“This case remains the only time in the history of the modern death penalty that the federal government has sought capital punishment over tribal objection for a crime committed on tribal land,” Slater explained. “There have been at least 20 other instances of murder on tribal land in which the Justice Department considered a capital prosecution, but did not pursue a death sentence, apparently based on the tribe’s opposition to capital punishment.”