At a Killer's Sentencing, Native Americans Talk of Both Healing and Enduring Suspicions

The May 11 sentencing of James Walker proceeded as planned inside Grays Harbor, Washington, Superior Court: The 32-year-old pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the second degree in the death of Jimmy Smith-Kramer, a young father of two and member of the Quinault Indian Nation. Judge Ray Kahler accepted the plea and sentenced Walker to 7 1/2 years in prison in Washington state for having run Smith-Kramer over with his pickup truck.

There was one moment, however, when a matter not part of the formal proceeding was broached: Was Walker’s killing of Smith-Kramer driven by hate for Native Americans? The authorities had concluded there was not sufficient evidence to make such a charge. But many in the Quinault Nation had remained insistent that Smith-Kramer, struck dead at a local campsite as he celebrated his 20th birthday, had been targeted for his heritage.

https://www.propublica.org/article/at-a-sentencing-native-americans-talk-of-both-healing-and-enduring-suspicions