Posted on 12/11/2004 3:42:01 PM PST by bushisdamanin04
Justice, 146 years later
‘Historical court’ exonerates Nisqually Chief Leschi as watchers cheer
ROB CARSON; The News Tribune
Last updated: December 11th, 2004 07:21 AM (PST)
To no one’s great surprise, a “historical court” that met Friday to re-examine the trial and execution of the Nisqually Chief Leschi found the martyred Indian leader was unjustly convicted.
After listening to nearly four hours of testimony from historical experts and tribal representatives, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander huddled briefly with six other members of a special judicial panel and returned with this announcement:
“Chief Leschi should not have been tried for the crime of murder.”
The panel’s decision, while never in serious doubt, nevertheless met with the enthusiastic approval of about 200 people in the audience, many of whom burst into applause.
Alexander stressed that the special court, requested by Leschi’s descendants and members of the Nisqually Indian Tribe, had no real legal jurisdiction and overturned Leschi’s conviction in a symbolic way only.
Even so, it was welcome news to Leschi’s supporters, who long have regarded his 1858 execution as a travesty of justice.
“Now the world can know him as we know him,” said Dorian Sanchez, chairman of the Nisqually Tribe, “warrior, leader, hero and innocent.”
Leschi was convicted of murdering Abrams Moses, a volunteer militiaman in the early days of Washington Territory.
His case, then and now, turned on the question of whether Leschi was a soldier fighting a legitimate war or an outlaw breaking a legally agreed-upon treaty.
Both Leschi and Moses were combatants in a war, the judges unanimously decided Friday, and for that reason the Indian chief should not have been brought before the territorial court in the first place.
Friday’s mock trial was held in the auditorium of the Washington State History Museum on Tacoma’s Pacific Avenue.
The room was set up in the style of a traditional courtroom, with the seven judges, all in long black gowns, sitting at a black-curtained table on the stage, and the prosecution and defense teams at separate tables facing them.
Nearly all of the tickets to the event were given to members of the Nisqually and Puyallup tribes.
Several members of the audience came in traditional American Indian dress.
The “Historical Court of Inquiry and Justice” was intended to be an adversarial proceeding, but it fell short.
The state’s case was apologetically presented by two attorneys from the Pierce County Prosecutor’s Office, Carl Hultman and Mary Robnett.
They presented no witnesses of their own and had no substantive questions for the 11 witnesses called by the defense.
The defense witnesses included Cecelia Carpenter, a Nisqually historian; Charles Wilkinson, a professor of Indian law at the University of Colorado; Alexandra Harmon, an attorney and history professor at the University of Washington; and two military officers from Fort Lewis, who testified about Army policies and the laws of war and combatants.
In introducing himself, Hultman noted that his wife is a curator at the museum and that his personal sympathies lie with Leschi.
“We have what we feel in our heart, and we have what we feel as a lawyer,” Hultman said, “and they’re not always the same.”
That said, Hultman and Robnett argued that the lack of surviving records in Leschi’s two trials and appellate court hearing made it impossible to argue the case now that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him.
Records of the first trial were lost in a fire and records of the second trial are handwritten jottings and minutes that do not give a complete picture of what happened.
Robnett argued that, despite strong pressure from angry residents, the territorial justice system was thorough and professional, strictly adhering to the rules of law.
The justices rehearing the case Friday faced similar political pressure, she said, and should rise above it.
She noted that both houses of the Legislature passed resolutions earlier this year siding with Leschi supporters and urging the state Supreme Court to vacate his conviction.
At Friday’s retrial, historian Kent Richards, who wrote a biography of Territorial Gov. Isaac Stevens, said that, in Stevens’ mind, a state of war did not exist.
A legally binding treaty had just been signed, and most members of the Nisqually Tribe were peacefully abiding by it, he said. Some even fought alongside whites against Leschi, he said.
Stevens regarded Leschi and his band of warriors as “treacherous and ferocious … outlaws and bandits” who did not truly represent their people, Richards said.
Pierce County Executive John Ladenberg delivered a passionate closing argument for Leschi’s defense team, noting that the decision facing the panel was not just a legal matter but a social one.
“This case is about the future, not the past,” Ladenberg told the justices. “This case is about humanity.
“You have a chance to issue a verdict that will heal old wounds. We must not squander that opportunity.”
After the verdict was announced, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Daniel Berschauer, a member of the panel, agreed.
“Even though this decision has no legal consequence,” he said, “it clearly has a historical consequence, and we applaud the historical consequence.”
You see, a lawsuit has been filed in the Washington governor’s race and the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Monday. One reason they couldn’t hear the case until Monday [as most of you know, the manual recount is already underway] is because Chief Justice Gerry “Political Hack” Alexander was busy hearing the 146 year old case of Chief Leschi!
Now, in fairness to Gerry “Political Hack” Alexander, he was on the Dori Monson Show on Thursday and denied that the moot court trial had anything to do with the delay in hearing the legal challenge regarding the recount. Yeah, right [Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge!] Aside from the fact that Alexander’s conduct in going on Monson’s show and discussing the recount case is ethically questionable, his denial is pure political bull.
Maybe, just maybe, the Supreme Court will hand down a ruling before the recount is finished. Having just wasted 3 or 4 days because of the “need” to “clear” an Indian chief of a 146 year old crime makes that prospect less and less likely.
p.s. I know Mary Robnett and Mary Robnett doesn’t believe that anyone is innocent! Glad her and Carl and Gerry and John and others collected a government paycheck for yesterday’s “work.”
I'd hate to explain this state to anyone who doesn't live here.....I, too, am amazed at what we do here.
Did you see the TNT on Thursday or Friday? About 1/3 of the front page was taken up with a drawing of the "persecuted" chief!
I used to live in Tacoma but escaped years ago. However I have had to move back from Texas to Seattle to care for aging in-laws. I am here and I still can't believe this state. About 1/2 of what goes on here would get you shot in Texas for even thinking about it.
One does not often have the opportunity to call judges imbeciles, but clearly these guys deserve the title.
They view it albeit symbolically as a blow against the "unjust" war in Iraq, and certainly a cheap shot at most Americans who are able to see both the similarities and the profound differences.
“Even though this decision has no legal consequence,” he said, “it clearly has a historical consequence, and we applaud the historical consequence.”
These legal idiots are very clever. Althought the above concept ought to be clear ("no legal consequences" strongly implies no historical significance whatsoever, including the conviction and execution) I am certain that revisionists in the not-too-distant future will turn that naive assumption on its head...
I saw it online. If you look at their website, on the lower righthand side they have a copy of the actual paper's front page for that day.
How long before this "legal victory" makes it into Washington textbooks?
Actually has gotten much better in the last few years..T - town is really working at it....kind of like Yakima...without the glitter.
“the Legislature passed resolutions earlier this year siding with Leschi supporters and urging the state Supreme Court to vacate his conviction.”
Two more excellent examples of putting taxpayer funds to “good” use.
Tacoma is getting better, but will always suffer from being Seattle's handmaiden.
About to change....avg cost of home in Seattle =300k+... in Tacoma = 185k last I looked....demographics about to even out, I suspect.
BTW I'm not any body's handmaiden....most of them still up north. LOL
Real estate in Seattle is far, far more expensive than that. I suspect the average home in Seattle is at least twice that much. If you include all of King County it will drop some, but $300k won't buy much of anything in Seattle. About 3-4 years ago I saw that an 800 square foot house in the Central District (Seattle's version of a slum) had sold for $180k. I really don't know where Seattle finds enough people to be able to afford their housing prices. As you say, Tacoma and Pierce County are far more affordable. We paid less than $300k for a 3,000 sf view home; I suspect that in Seattle, 3,000 sf and a view of the Sound and Olympics would set you back close to a million. I saw a house on Capitol Hill that was fairly large but in so-so condition, without a view, and it was going for $650k ... and that was about 2 years ago.
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