Court
orders American Indian to trial for shooting eagle
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[May 09, 2008]
CHEYENNE,
Wyo. (AP) -- An American
Indian who shot a bald eagle for use in a tribal religious ceremony
must stand trial, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in
Denver on Thursday reversed a 2006 lower court ruling that dismissed
a criminal charge against Winslow Friday, a Northern Arapaho Indian
who has acknowledged shooting a bald eagle in 2005 during the
tribe's Sun Dance.
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In dismissing the charge, U.S. District Judge William Downes of Wyoming
said the federal government has shown "callous indifference" to American
Indian religious beliefs. Eagle feathers are a key element of ceremonies of
the Northern Arapaho and many other tribes.
The appeals court ruled that American Indians' religious freedoms are not
violated by federal law protecting eagles or the government's policy
requiring American Indians to get permits to kill the birds.
"Law accommodates religion," the court said in its ruling. "It cannot
wholly exempt religion from the reach of the law."
Friday declined to comment on the court's ruling. If convicted, he faces
up to one year in jail and a $100,000 fine.
Friday's public defender, John T. Carlson, said the ruling "reflects a
failure to grasp the unique nature of the Northern Arapaho religious
practice surrounding the eagle."
Carlson said he and his client haven't decided how to respond to the
ruling. Their options are asking the full appeals court to hear the case,
appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court or allowing the case against Friday to
proceed to trial in Wyoming.
John Powell, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Cheyenne, said
the office planned to proceed with the prosecution.
Friday, who's in his early 20s, said last year he didn't know about a
federal program that allows American Indians to apply for permits to kill
eagles for religious purposes. Lawyers representing him and his tribe have
argued that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did its best to keep the
program secret and only grudgingly issued permits.
In his ruling, Downes said it was clear that Friday wouldn't have
received a federal permit to kill an eagle if he had applied for
one. [to top of second
column] |
The judge wrote that the Fish and Wildlife Service has encouraged
American Indians to apply to receive eagle parts from a Colorado
repository that holds the remains of birds killed by power lines and
other causes. He said the agency makes no effort to encourage
American Indians to apply for permits to kill birds of their own.
The bald eagle was removed last year from the list of threatened species.
It had been reclassified from endangered to threatened in 1995. However, the
species is still protected under the federal Bald and Golden Eagle
Protection Act.
Kathryn E. Kovacs, a lawyer with the U.S. Department of Justice, told the
federal appeals court in arguments in December that Friday had no standing
to argue about shortcomings of the federal permitting process because he
never applied for a permit before killing the eagle.
The appeals court agreed. It also rejected Friday's argument that the
federal Religious Freedom Restitution Act, which prohibits the government
from placing undue burdens on religious practices, should block the federal
government from prosecuting him for killing the eagle.
[Associated
Press; By BEN NEARY]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
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