Author: Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Attorney Statement Regarding the Execution of Lezmond Mitchell

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

“Today, the federal government added another chapter to its long history of injustices against Native American people. Over the steadfast objection of the Navajo Nation, and despite urgent pleas for clemency from Navajo leaders and many other Native American tribes, organizations, and citizens, the Trump Administration executed Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo man, for a crime against other Navajo people committed on Navajo land.

“Mr. Mitchell’s execution represents a gross insult to the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation, whose leaders had personally called on the President to commute his sentence to life without possibility of release. The very fact that he faced execution despite the tribe’s opposition to a death sentence for him reflected the government’s disdain for tribal sovereignty.

“Mr. Mitchell’s execution came after the Supreme Court refused to allow him to interview his jurors – 11 white people and a single Navajo – about whether racial bias influenced their decision. Yet we have little doubt that it did, because in their zealous pursuit of a death sentence for Mr. Mitchell, the federal prosecutors made arguments laced with anti-Indian stereotypes.

“We have been honored to meet and work with members of the Navajo Nation and many other Native American people who sought to halt Lezmond Mitchell’s execution. We hope that the future will bring greater respect for the sovereignty of Indian nations and for the traditions of their people.”

-Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi, Deputy Federal Public Defenders, attorneys for Lezmond Mitchell
-August 26, 2020

Federal Court Dismisses Lower Brule Sioux Election Challenge

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials in Goodface v. Lower Brule Sioux Tribe 2020 Election Board (D.S.D.):

1 Pro Se Complaint

5 DCT Order

Lezmond Mitchell Suit to Stay Execution Pending Results of Clemency Process

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials so far in Mitchell v. Barr (D.D.C.):

1 Complaint

3 Motion for TRO

7 Federal Opposition

Yes!: “What Women’s Suffrage Owes to Indigenous Culture”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.

Minnesota COA Restores Leech Lake Ojibwe Member’s Challenge to Itasca County’s Authority to Prosecute Fireworks Sales

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the unpublished opinion in Irv’s Boomin’ Fireworks LLC v. Muhar:

Unpublished Opinion

Earlier case here.

Yakama Nation Suit against US over Timber Trust Breach

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials so far in Yakama Indian Nation v. United States (Fed. Cl.):

ECF 1_Complaint

ECF 11_MTD

ECF 14_Response to MTD

17 US Reply

24 Tribe Surreply

25 US Response

Jenni Monet: “Indian Country’s ANWR: How an Iñupiat Trump Official, Tara Sweeney, is challenging everything you know about Indigenous environmentalism”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

From the Indigenously site, article here.

Yakama Nation Endorsement of Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis for Washington Supreme Court

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the letter: Letter_YN_Endorsement of J. Raquel Montoya-Lewis (8.21.20).

Here is the text of the letter:

To Whom It May Concern, 

 

I write on behalf of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation to endorse Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis for the Washington State Supreme Court.  As the first Native to serve as a State Supreme Court Justice, Justice Montoya-Lewis brings a background and perspective to the bench that has been sorely lacking throughout Washington’s statehood. 

 

Justice Montoya-Lewis’s experience as a Judge for the Lummi Nation, Nooksack Tribe, and Upper Skagit Tribe have afforded her an in-depth understanding of both tribal law and federal Indian law, which is essential to understanding the limitations of Washington State law plays in Indian Country.  This experience makes Justice Montoya-Lewis uniquely qualified to recognize and uphold the Treaty and other inherent rights of the 29 sovereign Native Nations whose peoples have always lived in the lands now called Washington State.

 

Justice Montoya-Lewis clearly has the legal mind and acumen needed for the job, but more importantly she has the heart and compassion that our society needs from state judges.  On July 10, 2020, Justice Montoya-Lewis read aloud the Supreme Court’s decision to vacate its 1916 conviction of an enrolled Yakama Member, atwai Alec Towessnute, for exercising his Treaty-reserved fishing rights on the Yakima River.  Speaking truth to our experience as Native Peoples, Justice Montoya-Lewis correctly observed that injustices like the Towessnute conviction “continue to perpetrate injustice by their very existence.”

 

Justice Montoya-Lewis’s perspective has long been absent from the Washington State Supreme Court.  We urge all enrolled Yakama Members, and all Washington State citizens, to support her candidacy to retain her seat on the Washington State Supreme Court.

Muckleshoot v. Tulalip U&A Cert Petition

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here is the cert petition in Muckleshoot Indian Tribe v. Tulalip Tribes:

Cert Petition

Question presented:

Whether the Ninth Circuit, in conflict with precedent of this Court and the D.C. Circuit, impermissibly narrowed a decades-old judicial decree so as to deprive Indian tribes of their ability to exercise treaty fishing rights.

Lower court materials here.

Update:

Brief in Opposition

Barbara Creel: “Scheduled Federal Execution of Native American is A Death Warrant for Tribal Sovereignty”

Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here.