Here is the court’s opinion in United States v. Boneshirt.
A lengthy excerpt from the dissent:
As a longtime federal judge, I have seen and reviewed scores of cases in which Indian males have been convicted of assaultive crimes, including murder. Alcohol has played a substantial role in the crime in almost every one of those cases. See, e.g., United States v. Jensen, 423 F.3d 851, 853 (8th Cir. 2005), United States v. LeClair, 338 F.3d 882, 884–85 (8th Cir. 2003), United States v. Emeron Taken Alive, 262 F.3d 711, 712 (8th Cir. 2001). And alcohol obviously played a major role in the unfortunate homicide of Ms. Walking Eagle. Yet the sentencing judge chose a sentence well above the average sentence for murder when, in context, the circumstances were not outside of the usual, serious crime by an adult male Indian, particularly on a reservation.
In addition, the district court did not take into consideration Boneshirt’s life expectancy. The sentencing judge specifically expressed the desire to protect the public by ensuring that Boneshirt would be an old man when he was released: “the Court believes that there is just too much of a risk with Mr. Boneshirt being a part of society before the point where he’s of a very mature age.” However, the district court did not properly consider Boneshirt’s background as a Native American male, who has a life expectancy of fifty-eight years. See Christopher J. L. Murray et al., Eight Americas: Investigating Mortality Disparities across Races, Counties, and RaceCounties in the United States, 3 PLoS Med. 1513, 1514 (2006) “Native American males in the cluster of Bennet, Jackson, Mellette, Shannon, Todd, and Washabaugh Counties in South Dakota had a life expectancy of 58 [years] in 1997–2001 . . . .”). Even if he earns all of his good time credit, which the district court was not optimistic about, he will still serve more than forty years in prison. The district court anticipated Boneshirt would be an old man when he was released, but in reality he may be a dead man.
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