2005 Indian Country Report |
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Dear Friends and Colleagues: I am pleased to provide you with the United States Attorney’s Office’ Indian Country Report on federal prosecution and civil litigation matters arising in Arizona from July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005. This has been a very busy year for Arizona’s law enforcement community. On October 30, 2004, President Bush signed the Justice For All Act into law which took effect immediately. The Act significantly modified existing federal victims' rights and includes two new rights: 1) the right of federal crime victims to be heard at detention, plea and sentencing hearings, and 2) the right of crime victims to obtain legal counsel to enforce their rights. The federal courts are now required to abide by and enforce specific rights for crime victims during public court proceedings. An additional provision provides sanctions for Department of Justice employees who violate federal crime victim’s rights. Our joint obligation under the law and the potential impact to our cases should non-compliance with the new law occur, prompted quick action. We therefore immediately trained our federal prosecutors on the law, and we alerted our federal and Indian tribal law enforcement partners to our mutual obligations under the law. We will continue to work with all affected agencies to ensure full compliance with the Justice for All Act. In addition, we will continue to work with Arizona’s Indian communities to address the growing methamphetamine problem that has plagued this nation. We have met with the federal law enforcement agencies and interested Indian tribal law enforcement agencies to collectively address the impact of drug crimes on Indian communities. Finally, I continue to meet individually with Indian tribal leaders, law enforcement and judicial agencies to discuss issues unique to their communities. I continue to appreciate your support of the United States Attorney’s Office, and I look forward to working with you on all of these important matters. Sincerely yours, PAUL K. CHARLTON
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