Native Americans and the Death Penalty

Introduction

Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System

Native Americans on Death Row

REGISTRY OF KNOWN AMERICAN INDIAN EXECUTIONS, 1639-2006

News and Developments - Current Year

Jails in Indian Country, 2007- Compiled by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, this comprehensive report presents data from jails and detention facilities operated by tribal authorities or the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Introduction

In the December 2007 Edition of Criminal Justice Studies, David V. Baker presents the first comprehensive study of Executions of Native Americans. Before the European exploration and colonial conquest of North America, the indigenous population consisted of more than 700 separate cultural units speaking more than 300 languages. A greater number of Indians were killed through European conquest than the number of Europeans killed by the Black Death pandemic in the 14th century. The first legally sanctioned execution of a Native American occurred in 1639. Military authorities beheaded Nepauduck for the murder of Abraham Finch, a white man. While thousands of extra-judicial lynchings of Native Americans occurred in early American history, 464 Native Americans have legally been executed. In 1711, the first recorded execution of a Native American woman occurred when Waisoiusksquaw was hung in Connecticut for the murder of her husband.

Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System

The American native crime victimization rate is twice that of non-Indians. National crime victimization surveys reveal that whites perpetrate 57% of the violent crimes committed against American Indians. 80% of sexual assaults against Native Americans are perpetrated by whites.

The incarceration rate of Native Americans is 38% higher than the national rate. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights attributes this higher rate to differential treatment by the criminal justice system, lack of access to adequate counsel and racial profiling. Law enforcement agents arrest American Indians and Alaskan Natives at twice the rate of the greater U.S. population for violent and property crimes. On average, American Indians receive longer sentences than non-Indians for crimes. They also tend to serve longer time in prison for their sentences than non-Native Americans. The suicide rate is higher among American native inmates incarcerated in jails than non-Indians. Within the prison system, Native Americans are often subject to abuse when attempting to identify with native cultures through the wearing of head-bands, using native languages, maintaining long-braided hair, listening to native music, and securing culturely-related educational material.

Native Americans on Death Row

In 2006, 39 Native American prisoners resided on state and federal death row in the U.S. which is 1.1% of the death row population. Seven states and the federal government hold condemned Indian prisoners. Since 1961, 15 American Indians have been executed. 13 Indian prisoners were executed for killing whites and two were executed for killing other Native Americans. Between 1979-1999, whites killed 32% of the 2,469 Indians murdered, whereas Native Americans killed 1% of the 164,377 whites murdered.

REGISTRY OF KNOWN AMERICAN INDIAN EXECUTIONS, 1639-2006

Source: REGISTRY OF KNOWN AMERICAN INDIAN EXECUTIONS, 1639-2006 by David V. Baker