Death penalty negatively impacts Natives

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11, 2003

Before tribes were allowed to opt out of the federal death penalty, American Indians were put to death at a disproportionately higher rate, The Gallup Independent reports.

A study by the Capital Punishment Research Project found that 19 percent of the 340 men and women executed prior to 1994 were Native Americans. Native Americans make up less than 1 percent of the general population.

In 1994, Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act to allow tribes to opt out of the federal death penalty for first-degree murder cases. But tribes cannot opt out for certain drug-related and "general applicability" crimes because Congress reinstated the death penalty for these cases.

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Navajo death penalty stand still clouded (The Gallup Independent 6/10)