Top GOP Senator: Native American Juries Are Incapable Of Trying White People Fairly

[ProSense]

Top GOP Senator: Native American Juries Are Incapable Of Trying White People Fairly

By Scott Keyes

INDIANOLA, Iowa — Republicans have offered a number of reasons why they oppose the Violence Against Women Act. Some think it’s unconstitutional. Others argue that it’s just a meaningless bill with a patriotic title.

On Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) added a new one: Native Americans supposedly aren’t capable of holding fair trials.

Last week, Grassley was one of just 22 senators—all Republican men—who voted against reauthorizing VAWA. During a town hall meeting in Indianola on Wednesday, a woman asked him to explain his vote. Grassley responded that the legislation is unconstitutional, a belief shared by at least five of his colleagues.

Since the Constitution guarantees citizens the right to a trial among a jury of peers, Grassley reasoned that white men would be deprived of their rights if those who were accused of violence against Native American women had to appear in a tribal court. “On an Indian reservation, it’s going to be made up of Indians, right?” Grassley said. “So the non-Indian doesn’t get a fair trial.”

GRASSLEY: One provision that non-Native Americans can be tried in tribal court. And why is that a big thing? Because of the constitutionality of it, for two reasons. One, you know how the law is, that if you have a jury, the jury is supposed to be a reflection of society. [...] So you get non-Indians, let me say to make it easy, you get non-Indians going into a reservation and violating a woman. They need to be prosecuted. They aren’t prosecuted. So the idea behind (VAWA) is we’ll try them in tribal court. But under the laws of our land, you got to have a jury that is a reflection of society as a whole, and on an Indian reservation, it’s going to be made up of Indians, right? So the non-Indian doesn’t get a fair trial.

Watch it:

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There is actually no requirement that juries reflect “society as a whole.” The Sixth Amendment requires juries to be drawn from the “State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed,” and Supreme Court decisions establish that criminal defendants also have a right to a jury which is “drawn from a fair cross section of the community,” where the trial court convenes to hear their case. But this does not entitle anyone to be tried by a jury that reflects the whole of American society.

- more -

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/02/21/1619501/chuck-grassley-native-americans/

[rustydog]

1. WTF?

The lower Yakima Valley is on the Yakama Reservation, still have white, hispanic and Indian juries.
It had to hurt when he pulled that out of his ass...Thank God he has Obama care.

[ret5hd]

2. Well then, I expect he will soon be fighting to have blacks judged by a jury of THEIR peers.

Right? Right?

[niyad]

3. I guess that means white juries cannot judge native americans fairly, yes?

[niyad]

4. I knew grassutt was a sick, moronic idiot, but, until today, did not realize just how much

of one he is. what a pathetic waste of oxygen.

[Historic NY]

5. Really, Chuck your a moronic bigot.