United States v. Shavanaux, No. 10-4178 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseAn indictment against Defendant Adam Shavanaux was dismissed. The government appealed that dismissal to the Tenth Circuit. Defendant was indicted in 2010 for assaulting his domestic partner after having been convicted of assaulting a domestic partner on two prior occasions in Ute tribal court. In neither of the tribal prosecutions did Defendant have the right to appointed counsel, and in affidavits filed in his federal proceedings, Defendant established that he was not represented by counsel and could not afford one. Defendant did exercise his right to be represented by a lay advocate at his own expense. The federal district court determined that the Constitution did not apply to tribal court prosecutions so Defendant did not have Sixth Amendment or due process rights to appointed counsel in tribal court. The court concluded that Defendant's convictions did not violate the Indian Civil Rights Act or the US Constitution. Despite these findings, the court ruled that the otherwise valid tribal court convictions violated Defendant's Sixth Amendment rights to counsel in federal proceedings and dismissed the indictment against him. Upon review of the trial record and the applicable legal authority, the Tenth Circuit found that though Defendant's tribal convictions did not comply with the Constitution, they did not violate the Constitution or otherwise prohibit their subsequent use in federal court. The Court reversed the district court's dismissal of the indictment against Defendant and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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