Court ruling places execution of Diné on hold
WINDOW ROCK
Convicted murderer Lezmond Charles Mitchell will have another chance to argue his case in court.
Lawyers for Mitchell, who was scheduled for execution on Dec. 11, successfully petitioned to stay his execution with the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Oct. 4.
The three panel judges – Andrew D. Hurwitz, Sandra S. Ikuta and Morgan Christen – granted the stay because an appeal was still pending.
Mitchell was convicted and sentenced to death under the federal Penalty Act for the murder of 63-year-old Alyce Slim and her nine-year-old granddaughter in 2003.
Mitchell challenged his conviction saying the jury was biased because he was a Navajo. He made these motions in 2007, 2008 and 2015, and all were denied.
He re-appealed last year based on a 2017 decision in Colorado that said a juror convicted a man and “relied on racial stereotypes” to convict him.
Mitchell said he wanted an investigation of the jury that convicted him to determine if they had done so based on stereotypes against Navajos. That motion was denied.
The U.S. Court of Appeals granted Mitchell’s appeal to see if the court properly denied Mitchell’s 2018 motion to investigate the jury that convicted him.
Oral arguments are set for Dec. 13 at the Sandra Day O’Connor Courthouse at 2 p.m. in Phoenix.
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