Law Center News
Professor Adam Crepelle Appointed to Tribal Court of Appeals
Visiting Professor Adam Crepelle has been appointed as a judge on the Court of Appeals for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. The Pascua Yaqui Tribe was one of three initial tribes selected by the U.S. Department of Justice to pilot enhanced criminal court jurisdiction pursuant to the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) of 2013. This law vested tribes with the authority, subject to certain conditions, to arrest, and prosecute non-Indians who commit certain domestic violence crimes within their territory.
The tribe began exercising Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdiction under VAWA in February of 2014 and prosecuted the country’s first criminal domestic violence case against a non-Native offender under this law. With the law fully implemented, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe now has the ability to protect adult victims within its reservation from non-Indian domestic violence offenders. (see tribaljustice.org)
Professor Crepelle, an SULC alum, leads the Law Center’s new Indian Law Program which, in partnership with the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana, will hosts an economic development conference on March 13 – 15, 2019 in Kinder, LA.
