Page 18 - 082217

Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 053 ~ 18 of 45
She said tribes also recall how the death penalty has been used against them. In December 1862, for example, 38 Dakota men who were at war with settlers in Minnesota were hanged in the largest mass execution in U.S. history. An annual horseback ride to remember the men ends at the site of the hangings in what’s now Reconciliation Park.
Today, the death penalty is more likely to be carried out in cases involving a white victim, than one of color. Native Americans make up less than one-quarter of 1 percent of victims in cases that result in executions, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. For whites, it’s 75 percent, for blacks 15 percent and nearly 7 percent for Latinos.
“It’s not surprising you’d see a distrust of the judicial process similar to the distrust you see in the African- American community,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Melissa Tatum, a research professor at the University of Arizona in Tucson, said most tribes believe the
criminal justice system in Indian Country doesn’t work, “not in a suf cient way that they would opt into the death penalty, and the statistics bear that out.”
Pursuing the death penalty in a federal case isn’t taken lightly, said Kevin Washburn, a University of New Mexico law professor and member of the Chickasaw Nation. And tribes can’t decide on a case-by-case basis, he said.
“You can’t have a murder that happens today and have the Navajo Nation authorize the death penalty tomorrow and have it apply to the murder that happened today,” he said.
After Ashlynne’s death, Navajo leaders met with medicine people and talked for at least two hours, ulti- mately deciding to maintain the tribe’s position against the death penalty, Tribal Council Speaker LoRenzo Bates said.
“Navajos see life as precious, good or bad, and so we don’t pick and choose,” he said. “All life is precious.”
Under a plea agreement, Tom Begaye Jr., the Navajo man who admitted to killing Ashlynne, faces life in prison without the possibility of release.
Ashlynne’s mother, Pamela Foster, has been gathering signatures online to convince the tribe to change its position.
“If traditional teachings are squarely against the taking of human life, WHY are we allowing it to hap- pen?” Foster wrote in an online post.
___
Felicia Fonseca and Russell Contreras are members of The Associated Press’ race and ethnicity team. Contreras reported from Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Follow Felicia Fonseca on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/FonsecaAP Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
South Dakota Volleyball Polls By The Associated Press
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Here is the inaugural South Dakota Media preseason volleyball poll, as selected by media members from across the state of South Dakota.
Teams are listed with rst place votes in parenthesis, 2016 nal record, points and ranking in the nal 2016 South Dakota Sportswriters volleyball poll.:<
Class AA Rank-School;FPV;Rcd;TP;Pvs
1. Harrisburg;(13);24-2;85;1
2. S.F. Roosevelt;(3);23-10;67;2
3. Mitchell;(1);17-8;52;4
4. Aberdeen Central;(1);16-10;42;NR