Term: 2015
Docket: 15-420
United States v. Bryant
- Pro
15-420 UNITED STATES V. BRYANT DECISION BELOW: 769 F.3d 671 CERT. GRANTED 12/14/2015 QUESTION PRESENTED: Section 117(a) of Title 18, United States Code, makes it a federal crime for any person to "commit[] a domestic assault within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or Indian country" if the person "has a final conviction on at least 2 separate prior occasions in Federal, State, or Indian tribal court proceedings for" enumerated domestic violence offenses. 18 U.S.C. 117(a). The question presented is whether reliance on valid uncounseled tribal-court misdemeanor convictions to prove Section 117(a)'s predicate-offense element violates the Constitution. LOWER COURT CASE NUMBER: 12-30177
In the United States v. Bryant case of 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that uncounseled tribal court convictions validly obtained prior to a defendant's imprisonment can be used in subsequent prosecutions as predicate offenses under federal law. The respondent, Michael Bryant Jr., was a habitual domestic assault offender with numerous convictions on his record from Northern Cheyenne Tribal courts. However, he had not been represented by counsel during those proceedings and argued that using these past convictions violated his Sixth Amendment right to legal representation. The Supreme Court disagreed and upheld the Ninth Circuit’s decision stating that because Bryant's tribal court convictions were valid when entered (as they did not violate the Indian Civil Rights Act), they could be used as predicate offenses for §117(a) charges even though he was without counsel at those times.
In the United States v. Bryant case, there was no dissenting opinion recorded. The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Ninth Circuit's decision that uncounseled tribal court convictions could be used to enhance a federal sentence without violating the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.
