Finally, some justice might be heading to Indian Country.
The Senate this past week passed legislation to plug the gaping holes in how crimes are investigated and prosecuted on Indian lands throughout the West. Crime is skyrocketing on reservations, and now it’s up to the House of Representatives to also pass a bill that requires federal prosecutors to justify to tribal leaders why they drop certain cases and allow tribal courts to impose sentences of up to three years. A century-old law now forbids that.
In 2009, federal prosecutors declined to prosecute nearly half of all Indian Country felony cases. Violent-crime rates are 20 times the national average on Indian reservations, statistics show. Tribal leaders have accused U.S. attorneys of showing little interest in prosecuting the rapes, assaults or drug peddling that devastate some tribal communities, according to The Post’s Mike Riley.
We know the entrenched and complicated nature of reservation crime and enforcement isn’t easily addressed. The issue is wrapped in debate over American Indian sovereignty, lack of tribal law enforcement resources and the difficulty federal prosecutors sometimes have in prosecuting cases assembled by tribal investigators. But the changes in the Senate bill are necessary to bring some sense of fairness and justice to Indian lands and are long overdue.
Nacchio, still looking sharp in prison orange. Turns out white-collar criminals with lots of money don’t always get to buy justice, as some folks think. Joe Nacchio, former Qwest chief executive, was convicted in 2007 on 19 counts of illegal insider trading, and last week was re-sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison — two months less than the original term but far longer than the sentence his attorney sought. The judge did cut Nacchio’s forfeiture amount by $7.4 million, to $44.6 million, as part of a resentencing that an appeals court panel ordered last summer, but a fine of $19 million — the maximum of $1 million per count — remains.
We thought the sentence was appropriate when first handed down, and are glad it remained mostly intact. His crimes, as the judge noted, were serious because they “undermine confidence in a free market.” The real shame here is that the thousands of investors and retirees who took a significant financial hit as a result of his malfeasance will never be made whole.
Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia . . . King Tut! Welcome to Denver, Tutankhamun. It’s been more than 20 years since the Ramses exhibit hit Denver, so we’re excited about the new “Tutankamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharoahs” exhibit that opens next week. It looks to be quite a feather in the cap of the Denver Art Museum.
Short Takes is compiled by Denver Post editorial writers and expresses the view of the newspaper’s editorial board.
