Retired (almost). Can be found most days walking my dogs in the woods, listening to birdsong on my Merlin App, gardening for butterflies and food, watching all things Thunder, traveling to visit family, and cooking every Tuesday in our church’s soup kitchen.
I spent most of my legal career as a criminal defense attorney, representing clients convicted and sentenced to death in Oklahoma state courts in appeals and post-conviction actions before the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (1980-1991), later in federal habeas proceedings before all the districts, the Tenth Circuit, and the Supreme Court. (2008-2020). Those experiences were book-ended with prosecutorial stints–a long-ago short internship with Cleveland County District Attorney Preston Trimble and my present time as a “consultant” for the Attorney Generals of the Cherokee Nation and the Osage Nation in post-McGirt appellate litigation.
I came to federal Indian law through my dear friend and mentor Susan Work. Just out of law school, we provide representation to Native people for reduced fees in criminal and civil matters at the Native American Center. There we prosecuted a successful appeal in C.M.G. v. State, in which the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeal found that the Chilocco Indian School was Indian country, and the Indian juvenile, against whom the State was seeking the death penalty, could not be prosecuted in state court.
Susan and I both worked briefly at the Oklahoma Indian Affairs Commission, assisting Director Robert Gann with legal matters, preparing Indian Child Welfare Act training materials, and coordinating with Oklahoma Department of Human Services in implementing the Indian Child Welfare Act.
At the Oklahoma Indigent Defense Services I helped coordinate a state-wide system for indigent criminal defense. I also co-counseled an appeal in Cravatt v. State, in which the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals concluded the State had no jurisdiction over Mr. Cravatt, who is Chickasaw and committed the crime on a restricted Chickasaw allotment.
When I walked in the door at the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender’s Office, Randy Bauman handed me the file on Patrick Murphy. And Murphy v. Royal, McGirt, Sharp v. Murphy followed.