As a Navajo man sits on federal death row awaiting his upcoming execution date, his tribe is asking officials to spare his life.
The stance in support of Lezmond Mitchell is pushing up against the desires of some of the victims' family to see the Wednesday execution move forward. Mitchell was convicted in the grisly slayings of a fellow tribal member and her granddaughter in 2001 on the Navajo Nation. He is among a handful of inmates whose executions were announced after a 17-year, informal moratorium with a common thread of crimes against children. Mitchell is the only Native American on federal death row.
