Four inmates at the McClain County jail have been charged with rioting while behind bars.
Nicholas Smith, 35, Calvin Mize, 24, Colton Vickery, 31, and Johnathen Miller, 47 were charged in McClain County court. A fifth inmate was charged but pleaded guilty a week following the incident which happened in the afternoon of September 11, 2020.
“The safety of the other inmates and the safety of the staff is what is paramount here,” said Lt. Anthony Simpson. “They were luckily able to gain access and gain control very easily in this situation.”
The inmates told investigators they were unhappy their commissary was late that day. It was just the beginning.
Oklahoman
As eastern Oklahoma’s transformation to Indian reservations took a leap forward last week, some state and tribal leaders renewed their call for Congress to allow them to forge agreements for prosecuting criminal cases.
Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said recent discussions with members of Oklahoma’s congressional delegation “give me optimism and confidence that they’re going to move as quickly as this situation requires” to introduce legislation.
“The Cherokee and Chickasaw (leaders) are asking and supporting authority from Congress to compact with the state to share criminal jurisdiction,” Hunter said in an interview. “I’m hopeful that happens in the next few months and we look forward to working with the federal government and the tribes.”
Bill Oxford / Unsplash
Last week, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals delivered two monumental rulings affirming the tribal sovereignty of the Chickasaw Nation and the Cherokee Nation. The cases are now part of five Oklahoma tribes effort to regain their reservations following a historic win in the U.S. Supreme Court.
In each case, the defendants challenged the state s ability to prosecute them based on the location of the crime and the fact that both involved citizens of tribal nations in Oklahoma. In siding with the defendants, the court found that the reservations for both the Chickasaw Nation and the Cherokee Nation were never disestablished.
OKLAHOMA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
In two cases on Thursday, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled the tribal boundaries of the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations were never disestablished by Congress.
First, the court ruled that the Chickasaw Nation has jurisdiction, not the state, in the case of a man on Oklahoma s death row.
The court granted post-conviction relief to Shaun Bosse, who was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murder of Katrina Griffin and her two children in McClain County.
The ruling means that the Chickasaw Nation, and by extension the federal government, have jurisdiction to try crimes involving Indigenous citizens when they happen within the nation s boundaries. Bosse s victims were citizens of the Chickasaw Nation.