By: Derek Hawkins//June 22, 2016//
US Supreme Court
Case Name: United States v. Bryant
Case No.: 15-420
Focus: Constitutionality – ICRA
Because Bryant’s tribal-court convictions occurred in proceedings that complied with ICRA and were therefore valid when entered, use of those convictions as predicate offenses in a §117(a) prosecution does not violate the Constitution.
“Nichols instructs that convictions valid when entered retain that status when invoked in a subsequent proceeding. Nichols reasoned that “[e]nhancement statutes . . . do not change the penalty imposed for the earlier conviction”; rather, repeat-offender laws “penaliz[e] only the last offense committed by the defendant.” 511 U. S., at 747. Bryant’s sentence for violating §117(a) punishes his most recent acts of domestic assault, not his prior crimes prosecuted in tribal court. He was denied no right to counsel in tribal court, and his Sixth Amendment right was honored in federal court. Bryant acknowledges that Nichols would have allowed reliance on uncounseled tribal- court convictions resulting in fines to satisfy §117(a)’s prior-crimes predicate. But there is no cause to distinguish for §117(a) purposes between fine-only tribal-court convictions and valid but uncounseled tribal-court convictions resulting in imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year. Neither violates the Sixth Amendment. Bryant is not aided by Burgett. A defendant convicted in tribal court suffered no Sixth Amendment violation in the first instance, so he cannot “suffe[r] anew” from a prior deprivation in his federal prosecution”
Reversed and Remanded
Dissenting:
Concurring: THOMAS