The state of Oklahoma plans to ask the
10th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider a landmark ruling that affirmed the boundaries of the
Muscogee (Creek) Nation.
The state has until September 21 to file a petition for rehearing, according to an
order granted last week. A motion cited the sweeping nature of the court's August 8 decision in
Murphy v. Royal.
"If this court’s opinion stands, other criminal defendants in Oklahoma (past, present and future) may argue that the state lacks jurisdiction to prosecute criminal cases over areas that are home to over a million Oklahoma citizens," Oklahoma
Attorney General Mike Hunter wrote in the motion, which asked for more time to file the petition due to the complexity of the issue.
The decision is indeed having an impact on criminal cases. Three days after it was issued, a former police officer accused of murder said the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him because he is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and because his alleged crime occurred within the boundaries of the reservation.
According to an
August 11 motion, Shannon Kepler was issued a tribal citizenship just two days after the 10th Circuit's decision. Despite the late action and some media reports describing him as "white", he always has been Creek, based on documents submitted to the tribe.
But he wasn't a citizen at the time he allegedly murdered
Jeremy Lake in 2014. The district attorney in Tulsa County plans to bring that issue up in hopes of keeping Kepler's case in the state system, The Associated Press reported. He is due to go to trial for a fourth time on October 9,
according
to records in his case.
The federal government otherwise would be able to exercise jurisdiction over a crime that was committed by an Indian in Indian Country. That could happen in the case of Patrick Dwayne Murphy, a Muscogee citizen was sentenced to death in Oklahoma for a murder that occurred on a Muscogee allotment.
The 10th Circuit ruled that Murphy could not be prosecuted in Oklahoma because Congress never "disestablished" the Creek Reservation even though portions were parceled out during the allotment era.
If he were convicted in the federal system, the death penalty likely would not be on the table due to a provision that recognizes a tribe's authority to refuse or accept the death penalty for certain crimes committed on their lands.
The
Sac and Fox Nation
is so far the
lone tribe to utilize
the so-called "opt in" provision found in
18 U.S. Code § 3598. But no one has been executed for a crime on the tribe's lands in Oklahoma, the AP reported.
There are instances in which a tribe has no say in the matter. During the Bush administration, federal
prosecutors in Arizona secured a
death sentence against a citizen of the
Navajo Nation because one of his crimes was not linked to
the tribal provision.
Read More on the Story:
Former officer injects new racial element in 2014 slaying
(The Associated Press August 23, 2017)
Ruling on Muscogee (Creek) reservation may have huge implications
(KRMG August 22, 2017)
Most American Indian tribes opt out of federal death penalty
(The Associated Press August 21, 2017)
10th Circuit Court of Appeals Decision:
Murphy v. Royal
(August 8, 2017)
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