DERRICK JAMES | Staff photo
Choctaw Nationâs Division of Legal and Compliance Senior Executive Officer Brad Mallet said the tribe reserves the right to determine its membership and would not recognize any attempts to define it.
DERRICK JAMES | Staff photo
Choctaw Nationâs Division of Legal and Compliance Senior Executive Officer Brad Mallet said the tribe reserves the right to determine its membership and would not recognize any attempts to define it.
DERRICK JAMES | Staff photo
Choctaw Nation Prosecutor Kara Bacon.Â
At least two state prosecutors argued for Oklahoma courts to set a minimum blood quantum in cases with McGirt challenges â including a case in Pittsburg County â despite established court rulings and opposition from the state s tribes.
AG Mike Hunter to seek state custody
The Jones case is one of hundreds affecting state prison inmates and criminal defendants since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last July that the Muscogee (Creek) reservation was never disestablished and that Oklahoma wrongly tried convicted child rapist Jimcy McGirt because he is a Native American and his crimes were committed on the reservation.
Under federal law, crimes involving Indians on reservations or land held in trust for tribes must be prosecuted by the federal government or tribes.
The attorney general’s office has identified about 20 cases involving state inmates who, like Jones, are not American Indians but whose crimes involved American Indian victims and were committed on reservations.
Oklahoman
Gov. Kevin Stitt is using “overtly political rhetoric” to exaggerate some of the problems encountered as criminal jurisdiction is reshaped in eastern Oklahoma in the wake of last year’s momentous U.S. Supreme Court decision, the Chickasaw Nation says.
“While differences over historic rulings are to be expected, the Oklahoma Governor has sensationalized and exaggerated accounts of transitional challenges, which actions have heightened political concerns over the process and undermined faith in law,” the tribe told the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals on Monday in a legal brief.
“To be clear: The Oklahoma Governor’s overtly political rhetoric is unhelpful, misleading and divisive.”