The Right to Counsel?: The Eighth Circuit Allows Uncounseled Tribal Court Convictions to Satisfy Elements of Federal Offenses

Abstract

On July 6, 2011, in United States v. Cavanaugh, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that prior, uncounseled tribal court convictions could be used to establish an element of a subsequent federal offense. In so doing, the court deemphasized the importance of reliability concerns in determining the validity of uncounseled convictions.