Lezmond Mitchell: Native American on death row for killing woman and her granddaughter to be executed Wednesday
Lezmond Mitchell, a Navajo man convicted of killing a woman and her 9-year-old granddaughter, is set to face execution on Wednesday night, August 26. Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death, is currently being held at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terra Haute, Indiana, where he is scheduled to be given a lethal injection. Mitchell was among the men whose federal executions were announced by the Trump administration in June after a 17-year moratorium on the process.
Mitchell was convicted in 2001 after he and an accomplice kidnapped 63-year-old Alyce Slim, a Navajo woman, and her granddaughter, Tiffany Lee, in October 2001. The suspects had planned to use Slim's vehicle for a robbery, however, according to prosecutors, they stabbed and killed Slim and slit the little girl's neck. Slim and her granddaughter's decapitated and mutilated bodies were found days later in a shallow grave in the Navajo Nation, northeast corner of Arizona.
Mitchell was 20 at the time the crimes were committed and was found guilty on multiple charges including first-degree murder, felony murder and carjacking resulting in death.
Mitchell's attorneys have since defended their client, saying that he had no history of violence prior to the murders and have claimed that he was not the primary assailant in the case. The attorneys have also pleaded directly to President Donald Trump to commute Mitchell's death sentence. Reports state that despite the horrifying killings, tribal officials and others have opposed the death penalty against Mitchell.
The Supreme Court, late Tuesday night, August 25, denied Mitchell's motions to stop his execution. Prior to the SC's ruling, a federal district court in Washington DC also denied a request by his attorneys to put a halt to Mitchell's execution until after his petition to the president for clemency had had more time to be considered. Mitchell had filed his clemency petition at the end of July, days after his execution date was announced. He had pleaded President Trump to show respect for tribal sovereignty by commuting his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of release.
It, however, appears unlikely that Mitchell's clemency request will be granted given the late stage of his execution, which is set at 6 pm ET.
Tribal leaders from across the nation, last week, had made an urgent call to President Trump in a letter, supporting clemency for Mitchell. The National Congress of American Indians, the oldest, largest and most representative American Indian and Alaska Native organization, the leaders of thirteen separate Native American tribes, and more than 230 Native American citizens from over 90 different tribal affiliations sent the letters to Trump.
“Mr. Mitchell’s death sentence deeply offends the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation as well as that of Native American Tribes around the country,” the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community of Washington State in their letter wrote. “In addition, it is an egregious example of the disparate sentencing facing Indian defendants.”
The leaders recently called out the federal government for moving ahead with the execution despite their objection. Mitchell's attorneys have said that their client would be the first Native American in modern history to be executed by the US government for a crime committed against another Native American on tribal land. They have also pointed to a legal loophole in the case citing that under the Major Crimes Act, Congress permitted a "tribal option" where leaders of tribes can decide whether they want to opt in for the federal death penalty. The Navajo Nation, of which Mitchell is a member, has not opted in for the penalty.