Supreme Court to Review Native American’s Conviction and Death Sentence for Murder on Indian Lands

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a fed­er­al appeals court deci­sion vacat­ing the con­vic­tion of Patrick Dwayne Murphy (pic­tured), a Native-American pris­on­er sen­tenced to death in Oklahoma state court for a mur­der he argues could only be pros­e­cut­ed by the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. On May 21, 2018, the Court grant­ed Oklahoma’s peti­tion to review an August 2017 deci­sion by the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit rul­ing that Murphy — a mem­ber of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation—should not have been tried in state courts because the killing occurred with­in the bor­ders of the Creek Reservation, which the court found to be ​“Indian country.” 

Under the fed­er­al Major Crimes Act, cer­tain enu­mer­at­ed crimes, includ­ing mur­der, are sub­ject to exclu­sive fed­er­al juris­dic­tion if com­mit­ted in Indian coun­try by or against an Indian. A unan­i­mous three-judge pan­el of the appeals court sided with Murphy and Native American friend-of-the-court advo­cates who argued that the bound­aries of the Creek Reservation — which spans eleven coun­ties across Oklahoma, includ­ing most of Tulsa — were estab­lished in an 1866 treaty between the U.S. and the Creek Nation and that Congress has nev­er disestablished them. 

In their peti­tion to the Court, state pros­e­cu­tors chal­lenged the cir­cuit court’s rul­ing that found that the 1866 treaty between the U.S. and the Creek Nation remains intact, claim­ing that the deci­sion ​“threat­ens to res­ur­rect Oklahoma’s pre-state­hood sta­tus.” Murphy’s brief oppos­ing the State’s peti­tion argues that, while the State of Oklahoma has long ​“assert­ed absolute crim­i­nal and civ­il juris­dic­tion” over these lands, it has done so ​“in defi­ance of Congress’s statutes, in fur­ther­ance of one of this country’s most shame­ful episodes of plun­der and exploitation.”

The land in ques­tion in the case has long been claimed by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Kevin Dellinger, attor­ney gen­er­al for the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, said that they ​“wel­come the chance for the United States Supreme Court to affirm the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s sov­er­eign ter­ri­to­r­i­al bound­aries as estab­lished in our 1866 treaty with the United States.” The Tenth Circuit ​“found clear con­fir­ma­tion that Congress delib­er­ate­ly pre­served the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reser­va­tion,” he said. ​“Unable to dis­pute the clear his­tor­i­cal record and the law, the state of Oklahoma has asked the Supreme Court to read into facts that sim­ply do not exist and/​or to change the well estab­lished applicable law.” 

The Supreme Court will hear argu­ment in the case in the Fall. Justice Gorsuch, who pre­vi­ous­ly served as a judge on the Tenth Circuit, took no part in the deci­sion to review the case.