Amicus brief to submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
Please find the amicus brief directed at Shakopee, in U.S. v. Tolth, seeking rehearing on a Ninth Circuit decision to preclude consideration of evidence gathered after a second Miranda advisement.
Ella Mae Begay is a mother, auntie, sister, daughter, friend, and matriarch of the Navajo Nation. Like far too many Native women, she was brutally assaulted, kidnapped, and disappeared in her own home on her tribe’s reservation. One of her assailants, Defendant Preston Tolth, has confessed to hitting her in the head with a blunt object and leaving her unconscious on the Navajo Reservation. The question is not whether Tolth brutally assaulted Ella Mae, but rather, whether federal law enforcement may use his confession to prosecute him for his crimes, and, to continue their search to find her.
While all defendants deserve the full protection of the U.S. Constitution, those rights are not limitless. Here, the law officers respected Tolth’s rights. His confession was voluntary. To this day, Ella Mae remains missing. Like countless Native women, her disappearance remains unsolved. Many—from U.S. Presidents to Senators and tribal leaders—continue to propose ideas to solve the MMIWG crisis in the United States.
One thing is certain, though: the crisis will never be solved if confessions, such as Tolth’s, are thrown out of court based on interpretations of Supreme Court precedent that create irrational obstacles to the federal law officers working to save Native women’s lives. Amici respectfully request that this Court grant the United States’ motion for rehearing.