National Roundup

New Mexico
Court dismisses Navajo Nation lawsuit over general election
FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — The Window Rock Judicial District has dismissed a complaint filed by a member of the Navajo Nation that sought to force a primary election that was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Eloise Brown filed the lawsuit in August, claiming the voting rights of the Navajo people were violated when the Navajo Nation Council overrode a veto by the tribal president and canceled the primary election, The Daily Times reported.

"It's not right for the council just to go ahead and make a decision for the people without asking the people or without having voters involved," Brown said during a news conference in August.

The council authorized the general election and not the primary election to be held to seat officials for chapter governments and to determine membership on various committees and boards.

Brown's attorneys, David Jordan and Justin Jones, questioned the logic in using the pandemic to cancel the primary election while maintaining the general election date. Jordan said counties complied with social distancing and had people wear masks and wash their hands.

Judge Malcolm Begay dismissed the lawsuit last Tuesday, arguing that Brown did not follow provisions in tribal law to sue the tribe and as a result the court did not have jurisdiction over the matter. Begay said if Brown followed the requirements, the court would have had time to consider the complaint.

"Insofar as the right to an election, it is the plaintiff who is attempting to take that right away from the Navajo people by cancelling the general election," the court order said.

The decision came less than a week after the tribe filed a motion to dismiss the case.

Tribal President Jonathan Nez had vetoed the voting measure and urged lawmakers and election officials to come up with alternatives to preserve tribal members' rights to vote. The Tribal Council overturned the veto, sending all candidates to the general election ballot for the races to be decided by plurality vote.

Navajo Nation Council Speaker Seth Damon's office said in August that the Tribal Council had established a record of discussion leading up to its decision.

South Carolina
Man in prison for 17 years found not guilty of murder, freed
CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — A South Carolina man who spent more than 17 years in prison for the murder of a Taco Bell worker has been found not guilty after an appeals court overturned his conviction.

Gary Bennett walked out of the Horry County jail a free man Thursday after the jury deliberated over two days and found him not guilty of murder, armed robbery and other charges in the death of Marie Martin in 2000.

Prosecutors said Bennett slashed Martin's throat as he tried to get her to give him the combination to the restaurant's safe. They had testimony from a man who said he was with Bennett that night and someone who said Bennett confessed to the killing while in jail.

But defense attorneys pointed out that Bennett's DNA and fingerprints were not found at the home where Martin was killed.

The cellmate's letter including Bennett's confession was postmarked before the two were in a cell together, defense lawyers said, according to media outlets.

Andrew Lindsey, who testified he was in the home with Bennett at the time of the killing, spent about 10 years in prison after being convicted as an accessory after the fact.

Defense lawyers reminded jurors that Lindsey didn't tell police about Martin's killing until he was in trouble for other crimes, and what he testified to at Bennett's 2020 trial was different than what he told investigators 20 years earlier.

Bennett was serving life without parole when his conviction was overturned because a judge ruled his original trial lawyers did not provide him an adequate defense.

South Dakota
Report: State AG distracted before fatal crash
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg was distracted before he drove onto a highway shoulder where he struck and killed a pedestrian in September, state Secretary of Safety Craig Price said Monday.

Price said 55-year-old Joseph Boever was walking on the side of the road and displaying some type of light on the night of Sept. 12 when he was struck by Ravnsborg's 2011 Ford Taurus. Price did not describe what led Ravnsborg to become distracted.

Ravnsborg told a 911 dispatcher that he hit "something" in the middle of the road when Boever was killed. Boever's relatives believed he was walking on the highway shoulder toward his truck that had crashed earlier that evening.

When a 911 dispatcher asked if it could have been a deer, Ravnsborg initially said, "I have no idea" before adding, "It could be."

Ravnsborg initially told a county sheriff dispatched to the crash site near Highmore in central South Dakota that he thought he struck a deer on U.S. Highway 14. He said he returned to the scene the next morning and discovered he had struck a man.

Ravnsborg is a Republican, serving his first term in office after winning election in 2018.

The investigation is still waiting on numerous reports, including a coroner's summary and toxicology results, Price said. The speed limit at the site of the crash was 65 mph (105 kph), but it is unclear how fast Ravnsborg was driving.

The attorney general was driving home to Pierre from a Republican fundraiser some 110 miles (180 kilometers) away in Redfield. Ravnsborg had said he had nothing to drink.

A toxicology report taken roughly 15 hours after the crash showed no alcohol in Ravnsborg's system, although at least one expert said that would have been enough time for alcohol to leave the body of someone who had been drinking heavily.

A preliminary autopsy report showed Boever died from extensive traumatic injuries from the crash. His relatives have questioned Ravnsborg's version of events.

A crash reconstruction expert from Wyoming and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation assisted the South Dakota Highway Patrol in the investigation.

Such accidents would ordinarily be investigated by the South Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which answers to the attorney general's office. The other agencies took on the investigation to avoid a conflict of interest.

Ravnsborg has continued to work as attorney general.