United States v. Bryant

• Decision Date: 13 June 2016
• Docket Number: No. 15–420.,15–420.
• Citation: 136 S.Ct. 1954,195 L.Ed.2d 317
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Petitioner v. Michael BRYANT, Jr.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

136 S.Ct. 1954

195 L.Ed.2d 317

UNITED STATES, Petitioner

v.Michael BRYANT, Jr.

No. 15–420.

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued April 19, 2016.

Decided June 13, 2016.

As Revised July 7, 2016.

Elizabeth B. Prelogar, Washington, DC, for Petitioner.

Steven C. Babcock, Billings, MT, for Respondent.

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Petitioner.

Donald B. Verrilli, Jr., Solicitor General, Leslie R. Caldwell, Assistant Attorney General, Michael R. Dreeben, Deputy Solicitor General, Elizabeth B. Prelogar, Assistant to the Solicitor General, Demetra Lambros, Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Petitioner.

Anthony R. Gallagher, Federal Defender, Michael Donahoe, Senior Litigator, Steven C. Babcock, Assistant Federal Defender, Joslyn Hunt, Research Attorney, Federal Defenders of Montana, Billings, MT, for Respondent.

Justice GINSBURG

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In response to the high incidence of domestic violence against Native American women, Congress, in 2005, enacted 18 U.S.C. § 117(a)

, which targets serial offenders. Section 117(a) makes it a federal crime for any person to "commi [t] a domestic assault within ... Indian country" if the person has at least two prior final convictions for domestic violence rendered "in Federal, State, or Indian tribal court proceedings." See Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA Reauthorization Act), Pub. L. 109–162, §§ 901, 909, 119 Stat. 3077, 3084.¹ Respondent Michael Bryant, Jr., has multiple tribal-court convictions for domestic assault. For most of those convictions, he was sentenced to terms of imprisonment, none of them exceeding one year's duration. His tribal-court convictions do not count for § 117(a) purposes, Bryant maintains, because he was uncounseled in those proceedings.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees indigent defendants, in state and federal criminal proceedings, appointed counsel in any case in which a term of imprisonment is imposed. Scott v. Illinois, 440 U.S. 367, 373–374, 99 S.Ct. 1158, 59 L.Ed.2d 383 (1979)

. But the Sixth Amendment does not apply to tribal-court proceedings. See Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co., 554 U.S. 316, 337, 128 S.Ct. 2709, 171 L.Ed.2d 457 (2008). The Indian Civil Rights Act of 1968 (ICRA), Pub.L. 90–284, 82 Stat. 77, 25 U.S.C. § 1301 et seq., which governs criminal proceedings in tribal courts, requires appointed counsel only when a sentence of more than one year's imprisonment is imposed. § 1302(c)(2)

. Bryant's tribal-court convictions, it is undisputed, were valid when entered. This case presents the question whether those convictions, though uncounseled, rank as predicate offenses within the compass of § 117(a). Our answer is yes. Bryant's tribal-court convictions did not violate the Sixth Amendment when obtained, and they retain their validity when invoked in a § 117(a) prosecution. That proceeding generates no Sixth Amendment defect where none previously existed.

I

A

"[C]ompared to all other groups in the United States," Native American women "experience the highest rates of domestic violence." 151 Cong. Rec. 9061 (2005) (remarks of Sen. McCain). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as many as 46% of American Indian and Alaska Native women have been victims of physical violence by an intimate partner. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, M. Black et al., National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey 2010 Summary Report 40 (2011) (Table 4.3), online at http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/NISVS_report2010-a.pdf (all Internet materials as last visited June 9, 2016). American Indian and Alaska Native women "are 2.5 times more likely to be raped or sexually assaulted than women in the United States in general." Dept. of Justice, Attorney General's Advisory Committee on American Indian and Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence, Ending Violence So Children Can Thrive 38 (Nov. 2014), online at https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/defendingchildhood/pages/attachments/2015/03/23/ending_violence_so_children_can_thrive.pdf. American Indian women experience battery "at a rate of 23.2 per 1,000, compared with 8 per 1,000 among Caucasian women," and they "experience 7 sexual assaults per 1,000, compared with 4 per 1,000 among Black Americans, 3 per 1,000 among Caucasians, 2 per 1,000 among Hispanic women, and 1 per 1,000 among Asian women." VAWA Reauthorization Act, § 901, 119 Stat. 3077.

As this Court has noted, domestic abusers exhibit high rates of recidivism, and their violence "often escalates in severity over time." United States v. Castleman, 572 U.S. ––––, ––––, 134 S.Ct. 1405, 1408, 188 L.Ed.2d 426 (2014)

. Nationwide, over 75% of female victims of intimate partner violence have been previously victimized by the same offender, Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, S. Catalano, Intimate Partner Violence 1993–2010, p. 4 (rev. 2015) (Figure 4), online at http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ipv9310.pdf, often multiple times, Dept. of Justice, National Institute of Justice, P. Tjaden & N. Thoennes, Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence, p. iv (2000), online at https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181867.pdf ("[W]omen who were physically assaulted by an intimate partner averaged 6.9 physical assaults by the same partner."). Incidents of repeating, escalating abuse more than occasionally culminate in a fatal attack. See VAWA Reauthorization Act, § 901, 119 Stat. 3077–3078 ("[D]uring the period 1979 through 1992, homicide was the third leading cause of death of Indian females aged 15 to 34, and 75 percent were killed by family members or acquaintances.").

The "complex patchwork of federal, state, and tribal law" governing Indian country, Duro v. Reina, 495 U.S. 676, 680, n. 1, 110 S.Ct. 2053, 109 L.Ed.2d 693 (1990)

, has made it difficult to stem the tide of domestic violence experienced by Native American women. Although tribal courts may enforce the tribe's criminal laws against Indian defendants, Congress has curbed tribal courts' sentencing authority. At the time of § 117(a)'s passage, ICRA limited sentences in tribal court to a maximum of one year's imprisonment. 25 U.S.C. § 1302(a)(7) (2006 ed.).² Congress has since expanded tribal courts' sentencing authority, allowing them to impose up to three years' imprisonment, contingent on adoption of additional procedural safeguards. 124 Stat. 2279–2280 (codified at 25 U.S.C. § 1302(a)(7)(C), (c) ).³ To date, however, few tribes have employed this enhanced sentencing authority. See Tribal Law and Policy Inst., Implementation Chart: VAWA Enhanced Jurisdiction and TLOA Enhanced Sentencing, online at http://www.tribal-institute.org/download/VAWA/VAWAImplementationChart.pdf.⁴

States are unable or unwilling to fill the enforcement gap. Most States lack jurisdiction over crimes committed in Indian country against Indian victims. See United States v. John, 437 U.S. 634, 651, 98 S.Ct. 2541, 57 L.Ed.2d 489 (1978)

. In 1953, Congress increased the potential for state action by giving six States "jurisdiction over specified areas of Indian country within the States and provid[ing] for the [voluntary] assumption of jurisdiction by other States." California v. Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S. 202, 207, 107 S.Ct. 1083, 94 L.Ed.2d 244 (1987) (footnote omitted). See Act of Aug. 15, 1953, Pub. L. 280, 67 Stat. 588 (codified, as amended, at 18 U.S.C. § 1162 and 25 U.S.C. §§ 1321 –1328, 1360). States so empowered may apply their own criminal laws to "offenses committed by or against Indians within all Indian country within the State." Cabazon Band of Mission Indians, 480 U.S., at 207, 107 S.Ct. 1083 ; see 18 U.S.C. § 1162(a). Even when capable of exercising jurisdiction, however, States have not devoted their limited criminal justice resources to crimes committed in Indian country. Jimenez & Song, Concurrent Tribal and State Jurisdiction Under Public Law 280, 47 Am. U. L. Rev. 1627, 1636–1637 (1998) ; Tribal Law and Policy Inst., S. Deer, C. Goldberg, H. Valdez Singleton, & M. White Eagle, Final Report: Focus Group on Public Law 280 and the Sexual Assault of Native Women 7–8 (2007), online at http://www.tribal-institute.org/download/Final% 20280% 20FG% 20Report.pdf.

That leaves the Federal Government. Although federal law generally governs in Indian country, Congress has long excluded from federal-court jurisdiction crimes committed by an Indian against another Indian. 18 U.S.C. § 1152

; see Ex parte Crow Dog,

109 U.S. 556, 572, 3 S.Ct. 396, 27 L.Ed. 1030 (1883) (requiring "a clear expression of the intention of Congress" to confer federal jurisdiction over crimes committed by an Indian against another Indian). In the Major Crimes Act, Congress authorized federal jurisdiction over enumerated grave criminal offenses when the perpetrator is an Indian and the victim is "another Indian or other person," including murder, manslaughter, and felony assault. § 1153. At the time of § 117(a)'s enactment, felony assault subject to federal prosecution required "serious bodily injury," § 113(a)(6) (2006 ed.), meaning "a substantial risk of death," "extreme physical pain," "protracted and obvious disfigurement," or "protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty." § 1365(h)(3) (incorporated through § 113(b)(2)).⁵ In short, when § 117(a) was before Congress, Indian perpetrators of domestic violence "escape[d] felony charges until they seriously injure[d] or kill[ed] someone." 151 Cong. Rec. 9062 (2005) (remarks of Sen. McCain).

As a result of the limitations on tribal, state, and federal jurisdiction in Indian country, serial domestic violence offenders, prior to the enactment of § 117(a)

, faced at most a year's imprisonment per offense—a sentence insufficient to deter repeated and escalating abuse. To ratchet...