General Jurisdiction/Trial Courts

Six virtual roundtables were held March 14, 2023 to March 23, 2023. Participants included individuals interested in providing more insight about collateral consequences in tribal courts. Groups were determined by region.

On May 19, 2023, Brenda Williams, Clinical Director at the University of Washington Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic, contacted NAICJA seeking assistance with holistic defense. UW serves as the primary public defender of misdemeanors at the Tulalip Tribes Tribal Court. Tulalip is considering updating its court structure to include in-house public defense. Brenda attended NAICJA's Tribal Holistic Defense Roundtable Conference and was interested in sharing with the Tulalip Court Administration the concepts of tribal holistic defense as a model for change.

NACDL and its partners offer ongoing technical assistance to capital defense teams who attended Bring-Your-Own-Case (BYOC) programs or in-office training programs conducted under the Capital Case Litigation Initiative (CCLI). This technical assistance leverages topics covered during the BYOC programs, surfaces topics that are needed in future training programs, and helps NACDL and its partners track and monitor trainee teams’ case status.

NAICJA staff met with the consultant, Amanda White Eagle, on September 8, 12, and 26 , 2023. On September 26, NAICJA conducted a webinar titled “Perpetual Punishment: Understanding and Addressing Collateral Consequences in Indian Country”. NAICJA is preparing a webinar summary.

TLPI staff, NAICJA staff and consultants collaborated to conducted a webinar “Tribal Healing to Wellness: Developing a Native Veterans Court” on Wednesday, November 14, 2023, to discuss HTWC models for veterans courts particularly the development of the Yurok Veterans Wellness Court.Veterans Webinar with TLPI "An Overview of Legal Issues and Support for Native American and Alaskan Native Veterans"

This annual conference provides training for all government prosecuting attorneys handling capital and complex homicide cases: including trial, appellate, post-conviction, and habeas prosecutors. The conference has something for all skill levels.

The Capital Litigation Committee, consisting of practicing prosecutors across the country who litigate capital and complex homicides, will convene at APA's Headquarters in Washington DC to discuss important developments in the field, identify training gaps and needs, and devise the trainings for the next year. Output from this meeting will include a summary report of the meeting as well as a curriculum.

Aimed towards newer and more inexperienced prosecutors of capital and complex homicides, this trial advocacy program will go over the essentials, providing an immersive courtroom environment for attendees to hone their trial skills. Topics will include voir dire, opening, direct and indirect examination, expert witnesses, recanting/difficult witnesses.

initial introduction meeting

NACDL will send attorney and mitigation specialist subject matter experts to the Capital Defender Unit in San Bernardino to train the entire office on Mental Health Investigations. The training will focus on trainees' existing cases and utilize the Bring-Your-Own-Case (BYOC) model to the extent feasible.