Lezmond Mitchell (Execution date set for death) Bio, Lezmond Mitchell Wiki
Lezmond Mitchell, who is Navajo, had been among the first of a handful of inmates set to be put to death after the Trump administration restored federal executions after an informal, 17-year moratorium. Mitchell has been spared temporarily by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where his attorneys argued they should be able to interview jurors for potential racial bias.
Mitchell lost the offer in late April, but the case was not technically closed and stopped execution. His lawyers asked the appellate court to stay in place, essentially, while requesting review at the US Supreme Court. The US lawyer in Arizona called on the appeal court to make a quick decision on Wednesday.
Convicted of the 2001 murder of the Navajo woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter, Mitchell’s execution date is now August 26 at Indiana’s Federal Correction Complex in Terra Haute.
Despite the spooky nature of the murders, tribal officials and even the family of victims opposed the death penalty. For decades, native American tribes have been able to tell federal prosecutors whether they want a death sentence for certain crimes in their territory. Almost everyone, including Navajo Nation, refused this option.
Mitchell was convicted of fatal conviction – a crime with a possible death sentence wherever it is, so the tribe has no way of appeal.
“The announcement by the federal government that it is now planning to run Lezmond Mitchell shows the ultimate disrespect for Navajo Nation’s values and sovereignty,” Lawyers Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi said on Wednesday. Said.
Mitchell will be killed the same week as Keith Dwayne Nelson, convicted of kidnapping a 10-year-old girl while skating in front of her Kansas home and raping her in a forest behind the church. it is strangling it.
My other three federal inmates died earlier this month – Dustin Honken, Wesley Purkey and Daniel Lewis Lee. All were found guilty of killing children.
Mitchell and a crime partner abducted Alyce Slim and her grandson in October 2001, and planned to drive Slim’s car in the heist. Prosecutors said the two people stabbed deadly and cut the girl’s throat. Their cut, torn bodies were found in a shallow grave above the Navajo Nation.
Mitchell’s lawyers said there was no history of violence and no primary offensive. They said they would continue to look for ways to get rid of sentence and death sentence.
U.S. Attorney General William Barr said on Wednesday that the courts have repeatedly ruled against Mitchell.
Navajo Nation Council Representative Carl Slater was sentenced to death during the trial of grandparents Mitchell as an educator, forcing the tribe to demand compassion from the federal government and to confirm his attitude towards the death penalty.
If enforcement begins to advance, Slater said the federal government has no problem using gaps to violate the tribe’s sovereignty.
“This is completely in conflict with our values,” he said. “The government has an obligation to express our values and reflect them. This applies not only to our citizens, but also to other rulers with these relationships. “
