US to execute only Native American on federal death row
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Monday
January 30, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
MONDAY, JANUARY 30, 2023
US to execute only Native American on federal death row

World+Biz

Reuters
26 August, 2020, 05:15 pm
Last modified: 26 August, 2020, 05:22 pm

Related News

  • A subsidy war without winners
  • Trump warns 2024 election 'our one shot' to save America
  • Forget 'autonomy': Europe needs the US as much as ever
  • Top US Treasury official to warn UAE, Turkey over sanctions evasion
  • Senior US general warns troops of possible looming war with China

US to execute only Native American on federal death row

Mitchell, a Navajo, is set to be killed with lethal injections of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, in the Department of Justice’s execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana

Reuters
26 August, 2020, 05:15 pm
Last modified: 26 August, 2020, 05:22 pm
This undated family photo of Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled to be executed for the 2001 killing of a grandmother and her granddaughter. Photo: Auska Mitchell via AP
This undated family photo of Lezmond Mitchell, who is scheduled to be executed for the 2001 killing of a grandmother and her granddaughter. Photo: Auska Mitchell via AP

The United States is set to execute Lezmond Mitchell, a convicted murderer and the only Native American on federal death row, on Wednesday, despite opposition from the Navajo Nation, which says the government is infringing tribal sovereignty.

Mitchell, a Navajo, is set to be killed with lethal injections of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, at 6 pm in the Department of Justice's execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

His lawyers and Jonathan Nez, the Navajo Nation president, have asked US President Donald Trump for clemency, and Mitchell has asked the US District Court in Washington to delay the execution while this is considered.

On Tuesday night, the US Supreme Court rejected his bid for a stay based on his lawyers' argument that racial bias may have tainted the jury at his trial.

Absent intervention, Mitchell, 38, will become the fourth man to be executed by the US government this summer after an informal 17-year hiatus, which was caused in part by legal challenges to lethal injection protocols and difficulties obtaining deadly drugs.

Mitchell and an accomplice, Johnny Oslinger, were convicted of murdering a 9-year-old Navajo girl, Tiffany Lee, and her grandmother Alyce Slim in 2001 on the tribe's territory, which spans four states in the US Southwest.

According to prosecutors, the men stabbed Slim more than 30 times, put the body in the backseat of her car alongside the granddaughter as they drove elsewhere before killing the girl later and decapitating both bodies.

Mitchell was sentenced to death in an Arizona federal court over the objection of Navajo officials, who said the tribe's cultural values prohibited taking human life "for vengeance." At least 13 other tribes joined the Navajo Nation in urging Trump this month to commute Mitchell's sentence to life in prison.

Oslinger was a teenager at the time and ineligible for the death sentence.

Under the Major Crimes Act, the federal government has jurisdiction over certain major crimes occurring on Indian territory, including murder but usually cannot pursue capital punishment for a Native American for a crime on tribal land without the tribe's consent.

Navajo officials, along with other leaders of other tribes, have opposed the death penalty, including in Mitchell's case. But John Ashcroft, attorney general under then-President George W. Bush, overrode federal prosecutors in Arizona who said they would defer to the tribe's position against pursuing a capital case.

In what Mitchell's lawyers deride as a legal loophole, federal prosecutors successfully pursued a capital case against Mitchell for carjacking, a capital crime that is not among those listed in the Major Crimes Act.

US / death row

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Photo: Collected
    Economic slump drags down growth in VAT collection from big cos
  • It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
    It's corruption that bites business harder: CPD
  • Photo: Masum Billah/TBS
    How the Padma Bridge motorbike ban spawned a new business

MOST VIEWED

  • A woman on a mobility scooter drives past a mural praising the NHS (National Health Service) amidst the continuation of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, London, Britain, March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
    Hundreds of thousands of UK healthcare workers balloted for strikes
  • Former Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan. Photo: Collected
    Imran Khan to contest from 33 seats in Pakistan National Assembly bypoll
  • Chief Executive of oil producer Rosneft Igor Sechin attends a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow, Russia February 15, 2021. Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin via REUTERS/File Photo
    Russia's Sechin says Taiwan will return to China 'on schedule'
  • British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at the Commonwealth Business Forum at the International Convention Centre (ICC), in Birmingham, Britain, July 28, 2022. Peter Byrne/Pool via REUTERS
    'Don't want to hurt you': Boris Johnson's shocking revelations on Vladimir Putin
  • China's and U.S.' flags are seen printed on paper in this illustration taken January 27, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
    China says willing to communicate with US military but 'red lines' should be respected
  • FILE PHOTO: Indian billionaire Gautam Adani speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad April 2, 2014. Picture taken April 2, 2014. REUTERS/Amit Dave/File Photo
    India's Adani hits back at Hindenburg, insists made full disclosure

Related News

  • A subsidy war without winners
  • Trump warns 2024 election 'our one shot' to save America
  • Forget 'autonomy': Europe needs the US as much as ever
  • Top US Treasury official to warn UAE, Turkey over sanctions evasion
  • Senior US general warns troops of possible looming war with China

Features

Photo: Courtesy

The Hawkers: Where minimalism meets motifs

2h | Brands
Illustration: TBS

Where do Shariah-compliant mutual funds stand in Bangladesh

52m | Panorama
Sketch: TBS

A subsidy war without winners

42m | Panorama
Photo: Collected

Oppo Reno 8T first look revealed!

1h | Brands

More Videos from TBS

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

Sarika Sabrin is waiting for a good film

16h | TBS Entertainment
Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

Take your football game to the next level at Next Level academy

17h | TBS SPORTS
“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

“Investments risky without consistent policy, reliable data”- SK Bashir Uddin

19h | TBS Round Table
What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

What does Shahrukh has in his 770 million dollar property?

1d | TBS Entertainment

Most Read

1
Picture: Collected
Bangladesh

US Embassy condemns recent incidents of visa fraud

2
Illustration: TBS
Banking

16 banks at risk of capital shortfall if top 3 borrowers default

3
Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!
Bangladesh

Bapex calls candidates for job test 9 years after advert!

4
Photo: Collected
Splash

Hansal Mehta responds as Twitter user calls him 'shameless' for making Faraaz

5
A frozen Beyond Burger plant-based patty. Photographer: AKIRA for Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Special

Fake meat was supposed to save the world. It became just another fad

6
Representational Image
Banking

Cash-strapped Islami, Al-Arafah and National turn to Sonali Bank for costly fund

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]