AG's concerns reasonable
Some of Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter's fears are being realized about the potential ramifications of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, and he is wise to try to keep them from proliferating.
In arguments before the high court over whether Congress had ever disestablished the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's historical reservation, Hunter's office argued that a finding against the state could lead to as many as 2,000 state inmates seeking to get their convictions overturned. Oklahoma lost the case last month; since then, Hunter said Monday, upwards of 200 inmates have brought new challenges.
The Supreme Court case involved Jimcy McGirt, who was convicted in state court of raping a child. The high court said the trial should have been conducted in federal court because McGirt is a tribal member and the crimes occurred on the Creek reservation.
The court also upheld a lower court ruling that an Oklahoma death row inmate, a Creek whose crime was committed on Creek land, had been tried wrongly in state court. Four other inmates had their judgments vacated by the Supreme Court following the McGirt decision.
A second death row inmate is challenging his murder convictions. Michael Bosse is a non-Indian, but his three victims — a mother and her two young children — were of Chickasaw descent and the killings occurred on the historic Chickasaw reservation, which his attorney says means the state had no jurisdiction.
Hunter is using the Bosse case to ask the state Court of Criminal Appeals for guidance about how to handle similar arguments from inmates. “Simply put, we are going to be taking the position that with regard to any of these requests, my office is going to oppose these requests,” Hunter said at a news conference.
This drew criticism from an official with ACLU Oklahoma, who said Hunter's office shouldn't try to “hold onto whatever jurisdiction it thinks it has.” Yet it makes sense for the AG to be concerned about whether crimes committed by non-Indians must be tried — or retried — in federal court if the victim or the location are tied to tribes. Hunter argued in a filing Tuesday with the appeals court that shared jurisdiction is possible in those cases.
Hunter says the McGirt decision is not a “get-outof-prison-free card” and that he isn't going to allow some individuals to try to exploit the justice system. He drew a measure of support from David Hill, principal chief of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Hill and the Seminole Nation's chief withheld their support from an agreement in principle Hunter's office announced it had developed with the Five Tribes following the Supreme Court ruling.
“We wholeheartedly support a rigorous process,” Hill said. “The Supreme Court decision is all about fixing what was broken in the past to build a better system, not giving criminals a free pass.” Most Oklahomans would agree with that line of reasoning.