United States: controversy surrounding the planned execution of a Native American murderer

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3 min

Lezmond Mitchell, Native of the Navajo community, is to be executed Wednesday August 26 by federal authorities for a double murder committed in 2001, on an Indian reservation in Arizona. But his fate is contested by abolitionist activists, the Navajo community and the families of the victims, complaints to which the Trump administration remains deaf.

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The facts date back to 2001. During a car theft with an accomplice, Lezmond Mitchell had killed two people on an Indian reservation in Arizona. He had first stabbed a 63-year-old grandmother, then slaughtered her 9-year-old granddaughter. Their bodies had been found in a shallow grave. Now 38 years old, the murderer is probably living his last hours. On Wednesday, August 26, at 4 p.m. local time, he is to be executed by lethal injection at the prison in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"An affront to the sovereignty of the Navajo tribe"

In 2003, a moratorium on executions entered into force, thus suspending the fate of Lezmond Mitchell. But this moratorium ended in 2019. Barring a last-minute pardon, this Native American from the Navajo community will become the fourth condemned to die by lethal injection since the resumption, in July, of federal executions. However, its execution is contested.

For lawyer Kevin Heade, president of the Death Penalty Alternatives for Arizona association, which campaigns against the death penalty, this sentence reflects the indifference and contempt of the federal government for the judicial sovereignty of the Native American nation. . According to him, Lezmond Mitchell was convicted despite a law passed by the US Congress in 1994, which guarantees the Navajo community to judge for itself a crime that took place in its territory. “To  impose the death penalty on him is an affront to the sovereignty of this tribe. We believe that President Trump should respect the wishes of the Navajo nation and commute Lezmond's sentence to a life sentence,  ”he said.

The inflexible Trump administration

The lawyer believes that the federal government "  clearly exploited a legal loophole to sentence Lezmond Mitchell to death, ignoring the rights of Native Americans  ". “  It's a political decision  ,” he adds, keeping a tiny hope that Donald Trump will grant his presidential pardon. The Navajo tribe and the families of the victims, also from this community, are also contesting the upcoming execution.

If executed, Lezmond Mitchell will be the first and only Native American sentenced to death and executed by the federal government in modern American history.

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