High on my list of tough jobs is being a public defender; I could never do it--particularly putting on a defense for someone that I believed to be guilty.

But it is an incredibly important job; it is one of the things that makes our country great. PD's hold police and prosecutors accountable and try to ensure fair trials. As I mentioned on this journal earlier, I even shook the hand of Nancy's PD after the sentencing hearing, and when I thanked the PD, I meant it. Also, I am friends with an LA County PD. We disagree about many, many issues, but I have a great deal of respect for him and the job he does.

I was under the impression that everyone in the US gets a public defender when they are accused of a crime and can't afford an attorney. Not so. It was with some surprise today when I read a very well-researched and well-written article on the front page of The Wall Street Journal that described how many American Indians living on reservations who are accused of crimes do not get public defenders. They have a different legal system on reservations and many folks end up defending themselves, with no attorney, against a professional prosecutor.

The article described judges trying to help the defendants without PD's, asking (during trials) if defendants had objections, etc. But the analogy mentioned in the article is correct--it's like asking a patient with no medical training if they have any objections to a doctor's interpretation of an x-ray...on what basis would the patient object?

One Indian fellow without a PD pled guilty to punching an officer and served his time. But after that trial, he was charged in the regular US court system with punching a federal officer. It was the same punch. (And he did get a PD in the second case). The guilty plea in the first case sealed the defendant's (guilty) fate in the second, and on a claim of double jeopardy, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Supremes gave him the thumbs down, 7-2, saying he needed to serve the second sentence because the Indian Reservation was a sovereign nation, but he also violated US laws.

Why is this important? Because we are the United States of America; people are supposed to matter here. People are supposed to have rights here. We have the gumption to lecture China and others on human rights, but yet we torture on Guantanamo? We lecture other countries on reforming their legal systems and American Indians on reservations accused of crimes don't get PD's?!

The USA has a sad legacy of mistreating American Indians. Allowing a small handful of them to get rich on gaming revenue does not make sufficient reparations. It may assuage some white guilt, but it does nothing for the vast majority of Indians. I have had business meetings with people involved in Indian gaming. I can tell you, they are generally not concerned with the welfare of poor Indians living on reservations.

My mother felt strongly about helping American Indians--strongly enough to go teach English on a Navajo reservation in the early 1960's. I'm still proud of her for doing that, and I still wonder if she ever met any of the Navajo "Code Talkers" from World War II.

I don't know what the answers are, but it seems that a good starting point would be providing public defenders for *everyone* in the United States who is accused of a crime but cannot afford an attorney.