Lezmond Mitchell, Navajo murderer, executed

The federal government carried out its fourth execution this year on Wednesday, putting to death Lezmond Mitchell, who murdered a 63-year-old grandmother and her 9-year-old granddaughter in 2001.

Mitchell was executed at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, after the Supreme Court rejected a final appeal.

Mitchell was Navajo, as were his victims, and the murder took place on Navajo land, sparking complaints by the Navajo Nation’s government that the federal execution was an affront to tribal sovereignty.

But the Justice Department countered that the victims’ families, also Navajo, supported the executions.

“Nearly 19 years after Lezmond Mitchell brutally ended the lives of two people, destroying the lives of many others, justice finally has been served,” said department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec.

Mitchell’s lawyers at the federal public defender’s office called his execution “a gross insult to the sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.”

They also suggested racial bias was at play in the jury of 11 white people and one Navajo.

“We have little doubt that it did, because in their zealous pursuit of a death sentence for Mr. Mitchell, the federal prosecutors made arguments laced with anti-Indian stereotypes,” said the lawyers, Jonathan Aminoff and Celeste Bacchi.

Before this year, the last federal execution took place in 2003.

Death penalty opponents had battled the federal government over the method of carrying out executions, arguing the drugs used for lethal injection imposed cruel and inhumane punishment. Opponents also argued that the federal government needed to follow state laws on executions.

The Supreme Court has rebuffed those arguments, clearing the path for resumption of executions.

In Mitchell’s case he was convicted in 2003 of carjacking then murdering Alyce Slim, along with an accomplice stabbing her 33 times before throwing her body into the back seat next to the 9-year-old granddaughter.

Mitchell drove the pickup truck into mountains, then ordered the girl out and told her to “lay down and die.” He slit her throat and crushed her head with rocks, then he and the accomplice dismembered the two bodies.