8.

The prosecuting attorney, Rodney Lefholz, was asking for the death penalty against Collins.

Death.

“Even if he’s guilty, this isn’t a death penalty case,” Jim Leach said. He could sound like an attorney, all right. “None of the required aggravating circumstances is present, like killing a cop or killing in the commission of a robbery, or something like that. Everybody knows this isn’t a death penalty case.”

I said, “No, Jim. Lefholz will claim Catch the Bear killed out of hatred for whites, that he intended to kill Tollefson, premeditated the killing, and that this is a clear case of first-degree murder, which carries the death penalty.”

Yeah, I suppose,” Leach finally admitted. “Before I got into the case, Collins had been sitting in that damned iron-and-concrete hole for three months with that death penalty charge hanging over him. Nobody can tell you how it is to be trapped in a stinking cell like that at twenty, or any age, helplessly waiting for white men who hate you to decide whether you live or die.” He continued: “In my opinion, Lefholz wanted to sweat a plea out of Collins—wring it out of his guts.”

“Sweat a plea and save a trial,” I said.

“Collins has incredible strength,” Leach said. “Collins is very brave. They never let him out to exercise once for those three months. He never saw the sun—stuck in that one cell night and day with the death penalty hanging over him. And he maintained his innocence through all that.”

Leach saw the horror on my face.

“Put yourself in the position Collins was in,” he continued. “An Indian caught up in the white man’s justice system. Suppose you, a white man, are arrested on the reservation and locked up in some foul Indian jail. Suppose you’re defended by an Indian public defender on the tribal payroll, and you’re held in that damned Indian jail three months—no exercise, poor food—and you’re going to be tried by an all-Indian jury for killing an Indian. And an Indian judge is going to sit on your case, and the Indian prosecutor wants to kill you and is asking for the death penalty, and your appointed Indian attorney is doing nothing for you. He has too many other cases to work on. He knows that no matter what he does, you’re going to die anyway. What would you do if they offered you thirty years for a guilty plea and you could save your life? Would you take it?” Leach asked.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t go there.