Clip
Jul 2020 Page resized
12 A03 42%
McCurtain Daily Gazette
Justices rule swath of Oklahoma remains tribal reservation
WASHINGTON (AP) —
The Supreme Court ruled
Thursday that a large chunk of
eastern Oklahoma remains an
American Indian reservation,
a decision that state and feder-
The court’s 5-4 deci-
Neil Gorsuch, means that
Oklahoma prosecutors lack
the authority to pursue crim-
inal cases against American
Indian defendants in parts of
Oklahoma that include most of
Tulsa, the state’s second-larg-
“On the far end of the Trail
to leave their ancestral lands
Creek Nation received assur-
- Security, historical preserva-
promised remains an Indian
Oklahoma governor says he
remains opposed to mask mandate
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP)
- The
talizations due to COVID-
said Thursday he remains
reservation for purposes of ty to jurisdictional questions cutors said he mutilated the
attorneys quickly released
Congress has not said other- a joint statement expressing enhanced the Creek Nation’s The reservation once death on the side of a country
encompassed 3 million acres -
- (12,100 square kilometers),
interests to protect people and Neither Murphy nor McGirt
continue providing exception-
The court’s ruling casts eight justices taking part,
- Comanche Nation citizen and failed to reach a decision
- - against them in federal court,
sador of the Muscogee (Creek) federal appeals court ruling
Nation and a former chief jus- short-term implications are
“In reaching our conclusion - out a state murder conviction Practice for Oklahoma City-
Court, said the state’s argu- inal context and that serious
- case, the appeals court said
tend to foretell the future cause legal havoc in the state Americans in parts of eastern the crime occurred on land “As a practical matter for
of the potential for cost and “All the sky-is-falling nar-
“In the long term, outside Congress never clearly elimi-
of the criminal context, there nated the Creek Nation reser- an indictment from a feder-
that have gone unappreciated
Native Americans committing The case the justices
majority opinion points out decided Thursday involved see the light of day, most like-
“This case didn’t change
didn’t impact the prosecutions - prison sentence for molest- state of Oklahoma issued a
successfully together as part- ics, housing, and nutrition pro-
- courts rejected his argument Muscogee (Creek), Cherokee,
have greater jurisdiction over in Oklahoma state courts and
that federal prosecutors should
on an agreement to address
McGirt could potentially any unresolved jurisdictional
- of the coronavirus pandem- “The Nations and the State
rently 453 people hospitalized ic, revolved around an appeal are committed to ensuring
Oklahoma State
Department of Health also claimed that state courts had -
reported three additional no authority to try him for a ers face justice for the crimes
according to health depart-
deaths, one each in Muskogee, crime committed on reserva- death penalty in federal court
- -
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.