If tribal courts provided competent counsel to indigent Indian defendants, Creel said, Then I would say, \u27Prosecute all day long.\u27 But [federal prosecutors] are trying to short-circuit that. They\u27re saying because we have this epidemic, let\u27s make it easier for everyone involved. That\u27s against constitutional values and tribal values.
Creel asks the justices to hold that all persons facing incarceration must have the same protections in place. That wouldn\u27t apply the Constitution to tribes but it would disallow federal prosecutors from using uncounseled convictions
