December 06, 2003
Medicine men are clergy.
A federal judge in Colorado has ruled that Indian medicine men have the same right to keep confessions secret as do other members of the clergy.
The ruling came in the case of Carlos Herrera, a Southern Ute, who was being tried for murdering a former lover. Herrera confessed his crime to Robert Cervantes, who is recognized as a medicine man by the Jicarilla Apaches. Cervantes' attorney had moved to have the confession suppressed on the grounds that it was made to a member of the clergy, in strict confidence. While District Judge Marcia Krieger denied the motion, saying that there was no evidence that Cervantes went to Herrera for a blessing or ceremony, and 'no request for forgiveness or for advice as to how to return to a state of spiritual harmony.' But while ruling that clerical privilege didn't apply to this particular case, Krieger nonetheless found that a confession made to a medicine men is privileged information, just like those that are made to clergy of other religions.
Courts have previously said medicine men have the same prison visitation rights as other clergy, said Walter Echo-Hawk, a staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund in Boulder.
But he believes this is the first time the courts have said medicine men enjoy the same right as other clergy to keep confessions secret.
There are additional details about the case in this Denver Post story.
Via AP and First Amendment Center.