Though one judge did strongly criticize the sentence, for a separate reason. Here is the opinion in U.S. v. Lamere (unpublished), and a separate concurrence.
Indian Country crime
U.S. v. Lente — On-Reservation Federal Criminal Sentencing
A badly divided panel of the Tenth Circuit vacated the sentence of an Indian woman convicted of vehicular homicide in United States v. Lente (unpublished). She was given a sentence of 216 months, more than four times the federal guidelines upper limit.
Of note, the lower court took judicial notice of her five tribal court convictions:
The court essentially gave seven reasons for the sentence: … 3) Ms. Lente had five Tribal Court convictions and three additional arrests—most of which involved the excessive use of alcohol and violence—and these convictions, along with her five separate probations, had failed to deter her from abusing alcohol and breaking the law….
NPR on Congressional Efforts to Stop Rape in Indian Country
From NPR (miigwetch to A.K.):
The federal government has recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to improve medical clinics, buy more rape kits and bolster the police response to what authorities say is an epidemic of rapes on Indian land.
The February stimulus bill injected $500 million into Indian Health Services, the agency that handles most medical needs for Native Americans, while the appropriations bill that passed in March is also adding funds. The March bill increases the budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs by $85 million to provide additional law enforcement on reservations.
Meanwhile, Congress is attempting to strengthen the authority of tribal police with a new bill that would grant Native American tribes greater police powers.
Advocates say it would be a sea change for tribes, which are largely dependent on the federal government when it comes to law enforcement on their lands.
Interlochen Public Radio Segment on Indian Country Crime
INTERLOCHEN PUBLIC RADIO (2009-04-21) In the US, we’ve come to expect that if someone does something wrong – and they’ve been found out – the crime won’t go unpunished. But that’s not always true in Indian Country, where there are complicated laws about which governments are allowed to deliver what punishments, against whom. Some even say, on some reservations, a white person might do just about anything and get away with it. But not in West and Northern Michigan. IPR’s Linda Stephan reports.
Listen here.
South Dakota Crime Report Authors Respond to Goldberg and Washburn
From ICT [the earlier post is here]:
Rich Braunstein and William Anderson
On July 28, distinguished professors Carole Goldberg and Kevin Washburn wrote an opinion piece in Indian Country Today [Vol. 28, Iss. 8] stating, ”It would be a mistake to accept the conclusions of the South Dakota study,” which is set to be published this winter in American Indian Culture and Research Journal.
We feel a response to that Perspective is needed to correct some of what Goldberg and Washburn wrote. Also, we, as two of the four co-authors of that study, would like to further challenge the community of interested academics, advocates and those generally concerned about American Indian criminal justice to continue to pursue reliable and context-sensitive research in this area.
Carole Goldberg and Kevin Washburn Respond to S. Dakota AG
From ICT:
Lies, damn lies, and crime statistics
By Carole Goldberg and Kevin Washburn
Are American Indians more often victims of crime than members of other ethnic and racial groups? Are most of the offenses committed against them committed by non-Indians, as opposed to members of their own group? Ever since the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics began issuing reports on this subject in 2000, the clear answer to both of those questions has seemed to be ”yes.”
Now the South Dakota attorney general and researchers at the University of South Dakota have challenged that conclusion, issuing a report that focuses on only one state but questions the Indian data nationally. Their challenge to the federal data is much too quick to dismiss the BJS findings.
Over the past eight years, the BJS, which is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, has released some startling figures. Although American Indians are .9 percent of the total population, they represent 1.4 percent of all crime victims, a very significant overrepresentation. At least two-thirds of all crimes against Indians, and 80 percent of all sexual assaults, are committed by non-Indians.
Indian women, according to BJS data, are 2.5 times more likely than non-Indian women to be raped or sexually assaulted during their lifetimes.
These statistics have been difficult to ignore. Tribes and Native women’s groups have raised them before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in order to secure greater support for Indian country criminal justice initiatives. Amnesty International included some of those statistics in a much broader analysis of sexual assault of Indian women in the United States, and used case studies from Indian country to make their point.
U-M Native American Law Day 2008: Combating Crime in Indian Country
Though they’re competing with our own Cohen panel on March 28, I have to point out the good work that the U of M NALSA is going in continuing the long-standing tradition of “Law Days” at the law school. Here is this year’s flyer — American Indian Law Day 2008
Turtle Talk 