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Thread: Shaun Michael Bosse - Oklahoma Death Row

  1. #21
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Prosecutor says murder victim's family wants state to retain jurisdiction

    By CHRIS CASTEEL
    The Oklahoman

    With members of a murdered woman’s family watching, McClain County Judge Leah Edwards held a hearing on Wednesday about whether Oklahoma death row inmate Shaun Bosse was wrongly tried in state court because the brutal crime was committed on the Chickasaw Nation’s reservation.

    District Attorney Greg Mashburn told the judge that family members of Katrina Griffin, who was killed along with her two children in July 2010 in McClain County, wanted the state to retain jurisdiction in the case. Mashburn said some family members were in the courtroom.

    Michael Lieberman, an assistant federal public defender representing Bosse, said, “We understand this is a very difficult case. But the law’s the law … the state of Oklahoma never had jurisdiction in this case.”

    The hearing is one of several being conducted in criminal cases in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that the Creek Nation’s reservation in eastern Oklahoma was never disestablished. The court ruled that the state did not have jurisdiction in criminal cases involving American Indians on American Indian land.

    The high court’s ruling is expected to apply to the other four members of the Five Civilized Tribes, the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole nations. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals has put some criminal appeals on a fast track expected to lead to formal recognition that those tribes’ reservations were never disestablished by Congress.

    Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter is using the Bosse case to argue that the state can still exercise criminal jurisdiction in major crimes when the accused is a non-American Indian, though he has conceded the approach is a novel one, given federal law on the matter. Bosse, a non-American Indian, was convicted in 2012 of killing Griffin and the children and given the death penalty.

    Hunter’s office has stipulated that Griffin and her two children, Christian and Chasity, were American Indians, but has not agreed to concede that the crime occurred on the Chickasaw Nation’s reservation.

    Lieberman called an expert witness to testify that the land on which the crime occurred had been deeded to private owners in 1906 by Choctaw and Chickasaw Nation leaders.

    Stephen Greetham, an attorney for the Chickasaw Nation, submitted a brief detailing the history of the U.S. government’s treaties with the tribe and the boundaries of the historical reservation, which include the site where Griffin and her children were killed.

    Greetham, who appeared in court on Wednesday, said the tribe has no position on the criminal case and was involved to protect its sovereign rights. Greetham said he and tribal officials were scheduled to meet on Wednesday with federal prosecutors in Oklahoma about taking over cases like Bosse’s when the reservations were formally recognized.

    Lieberman also argued that the state was wrongly demanding that inmates appealing their convictions prove that their crimes were committed on reservations. Instead, he said, the state of Oklahoma should have to prove that Congress explicitly disestablished the reservation.

    Mashburn, the district attorney, declined to respond to Lieberman’s argument on Wednesday, but the state argued in a written brief in the case that it was consistent with the state constitution to require the person appealing the conviction to prove the crime was committed on a reservation.

    The general rule in prosecutions — including in Oklahoma — is that a state is presumed to have jurisdiction over all crimes committed within its borders, the brief states.

    Edwards, the judge hearing the appeal, said she has 40 days to submit her findings to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

    Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General William Barr visited the Cherokee Nation in Tahlequah on Wednesday, in part to discuss the U.S. Supreme Court decision, referred to as the McGirt decision.

    Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. described the efforts the tribe’s law enforcement officials were taking to meet the demands of taking on prosecutions within its reservation.

    Barr said the Justice Department was planning to hire four new prosecutors in the northern and eastern court districts of Oklahoma and shift more personnel to the state to help with the caseload created by the decision.

    https://oklahoman.com/article/567286...n-jursidiction
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  2. #22
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    Chickasaw Nation reservation still exists, judge rules in Oklahoma death row inmate's case

    OKLAHOMA CITY — A McClain County district judge ruled Tuesday that death row inmate Shaun Michael Bosse was wrongly tried in state court because the crime was committed on the Chickasaw Nation’s reservation and the victims were members of the tribe.

    “This Court finds that Congress established a reservation for the Chickasaw Nation, and Congress never specifically erased those boundaries and disestablished the reservation,” Judge Leah Edwards wrote. “Therefore, the crime occurred in Indian Country.” The ruling by Edwards was the first judicial recognition of the Chickasaw reservation in the wake of the historic U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation was never disestablished.

    State judges have ruled in other cases in recent weeks that the Cherokee, Choctaw and Seminole reservations were never disestablished. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to decide, possibly before the end of the year, whether to uphold those rulings and establish a standard for handling hundreds of cases affected by the Supreme Court’s ruling in the case of Jimcy McGirt.

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/tulsawo...4493b.amp.html
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  3. #23
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    A convicted Oklahoma killer's death sentence was overturned because of a landmark US Supreme Court ruling

    By Dakin Andone
    CNN

    An Oklahoma death row inmate is set to receive a new trial after a court overturned his conviction based on a US Supreme Court ruling last year that determined a large part of the state is Native American territory for the purposes of federal criminal law.

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled Thursday the state did not have the jurisdiction to prosecute Shaun Bosse, who was sentenced to death in 2012 for the murders of 24-year-old Katrina Griffin, her 8-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter because the victims were members of the Chickasaw Nation and the murders took place on the reservation.

    The appeals court cited the Supreme Court's landmark July 2020 ruling in McGirt vs. Oklahoma, in which the justices ruled 5-4 that a broad swath of the state was Native American land for the purposes of federal criminal law. According to federal law, crimes that involve Native Americans on a reservation are subject to federal, not state, jurisdiction.

    CNN has reached out to an attorney for Bosse for comment.

    District Attorney Greg Mashburn, who prosecuted Bosse, told CNN in an interview Friday that federal prosecutors will assume jurisdiction in the case.

    "I'm devastated for the family (of Bosse's victims)," Mashburn said. "They can't heal. They're just going to have to go through this whole process again. I'm just really upset for them and hate that they're going to have to sit through another trial."

    The district attorney said the appeals court had their hands tied because of the McGirt decision. The result, Mashburn said, was "Bosse, who's as White as a sheep, gets to benefit by the people he chose to brutally murder."

    Mashburn's office anticipated the ruling, he said, so in recent months it has worked with the US Attorney's Office to help prepare federal officials to prosecute Bosse.

    According to Mashburn, Griffin's family still supports the death penalty for Bosse. It remains unclear whether federal prosecutors would pursue capital punishment, particularly under a new presidential administration and Justice Department.

    Additionally, though federal prosecutors can prosecute and seek capital punishment for certain crimes committed in Native American territory, tribes can opt in or out of the federal death penalty, an authority often referred to as the "tribal option."

    The Chickasaw Nation said prosecutors were "working to ensure smooth transition of the Bosse case from state court to federal and potentially tribal proceedings."

    "Our hearts remain steadfast with the family this man victimized," Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby said in a statement Thursday. "We are in communication with the United States Attorney and appreciate his assurance that federal charges will be timely filed. We will continue our efforts to see justice done for the victim's family."

    Supreme Court ruling presents 'massive problems,' DA says

    While McGirt vs. Oklahoma specifically examined a case that occurred on the land of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation in Oklahoma, the appeals court wrote that the Supreme Court's reasoning applies to other cases in which a defendant claims the state lacked prosecutorial jurisdiction for a crime that occurred on a Native American reservation.

    Mashburn said the full scope of the challenges presented by the ruling aren't fully clear yet, but it has already complicated the jobs of law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in jurisdictions that overlap with reservations.

    "It's a huge, complicated issue that's going to cause massive problems," said Mashburn, who serves as district attorney for three counties, two of which have been affected by the McGirt decision.

    According to the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office, 27 of the state's 77 counties are either wholly or partially within Native American reservations, and in those places, the ruling has stripped the state of jurisdiction and given it to federal or tribal officials.

    In an October 2020 letter sent to state officials, tribal leaders and members of Congress representing the state, Attorney General Mike Hunter said that in all of 2017, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Oklahoma indicted only three crimes related to Indian country.

    But in the few months following McGirt, the office had been referred 571 such cases. It's not clear how many of those cases resulted in indictments.

    Hunter and other state leaders have called on Congress to pass new legislation allowing Native American nations to enter cooperative agreements with the state, allowing them to work together in these cases. The Attorney General reiterated that call Thursday in response to rulings in Bosse's case and another with a similar outcome involving a separate inmate and the Cherokee Nation.

    "Crimes are being committed every day on lands now recognized to be reservations," Hunter said, "and today's decisions only place greater burdens on federal resources that are already stretched."

    Acting US Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma Robert Troester said in a statement the office had been working with law enforcement at all levels since the McGirt decision to "protect those living within the boundaries of the Chickasaw Nation."

    "Our office will continue the ethical, vigorous, fair, and impartial enforcement of the laws of the United States for the benefit of our communities," he said.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...?ocid=msedgntp
    Last edited by Moh; 03-15-2021 at 05:20 AM. Reason: Added headline and article itself.

  4. #24
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    Death Row Inmate Charged Again For McClain Co. Triple-Murder After Sentence Vacated

    By Barry Mangold
    News On 6

    Shaun Bosse was convicted of killing a mother and her two kids in McClain County and sentenced to death more than a decade ago. On Tuesday, he was charged with the crimes again in federal court after his state conviction was thrown out due to a change in jurisdictional law.

    “He gets a whole other shot at it,” said Greg Mashburn, the Oklahoma district attorney who helped convict Bosse at the state level in 2012.

    The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma reaffirmed tribal boundaries and criminal jurisdictions. The plaintiff in the case was a tribal citizen, convicted of a crime at the state level, who argued he should have been tried at the federal level. The high court agreed.

    The ruling gave way to thousands of previous criminal cases that originated on tribal land.

    Bosse appealed to the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals and said his conviction was not valid because the crimes took place on Chickasaw land, and the victims were Chickasaw. His death sentence was vacated.
    Federal prosecutors filed identical charges on Tuesday.

    “He gets a shot at not getting the death penalty. To complicate things, when you get to federal court, (there are) different rules and different standards,” Mashburn said. “I’m devastated for the family. They’re going to have to relive all this again.”

    Mashburn called the appeals court decision “absurd.”

    “He was in control of the entire situation. He got to pick who he was going to kill (and) where he killed them,” Mashburn said. “He’s going to get the benefit by those decisions that he made. He gets the benefit by who he chose to kill and the rest of us have to stand by and watch him get a whole new bite of the apple.”

    Attorney General Mike Hunter asked the appeals court to reconsider the decision to invalidate Bosse’s conviction because he is not a tribal citizen, which, according to Hunter’s office, would mean there is both state and federal jurisdiction to prosecute.

    Stephen Greetham, senior counsel to the Chickasaw Nation, said the tribe is committed to assisting the prompt prosecution of Bosse and other cases put in question by the McGirt ruling.

    “Our goal was, and is, never to allow Mr. Bosse to be free or to avoid justice for the crimes he did commit. Our goal is to make sure that we do it right,” Greetham said.

    https://www.newson6.com/story/606542...tence-vacated-
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  5. #25
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    Emergency court order delays death row inmate's release in reservation case

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emergency order Friday to keep Shaun Michael Bosse in state custody as state Attorney General Mike Hunter continues to argue that the death row inmate was properly prosecuted by the state.

    The appeals court agreed to hold oral arguments next week on Hunter’s request to keep Bosse in state custody while he asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. The order issued Friday temporarily prevents Bosse, who killed a woman and her two children in McClain County in 2010, from being transferred from state to federal custody.

    “We are pleased that Bosse is going to remain in state custody, pending this argument, and look forward to making our case next week,” Hunter said. “We appreciate this opportunity from the court.”

    How we got here

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals last month reversed Bosse’s conviction in a ruling that formally recognized the Chickasaw Nation reservation was never disestablished. The court issued a mandate earlier this week implementing its decision that Bosse was wrongfully tried by the state for killing Katrina Griffin and her children, Christian Griffin and Chasity Hammer, all members of the Chickasaw Nation; in its order on Friday, the court recalled the mandate temporarily.

    The ruling last month was made in accordance with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in July that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation was never disestablished and that convicted child rapist Jimcy McGirt, a Native American, should have been tried in federal, rather than state, court.

    Under federal law, crimes involving Indians on reservations must be tried in federal or tribal courts. Hundreds of criminal cases have been refiled in federal and tribal courts in the last few months in the wake of the McGirt decision, which has now been applied to all of the Five Tribes — the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles — whose reservations comprise most of eastern Oklahoma and some counties in central Oklahoma.

    The U.S. attorney’s office in the Western District of Oklahoma, based in Oklahoma City, has filed murder complaints against Bosse, and the federal government will take custody of Bosse if he is released from state prison.

    Oklahoma's claim

    In the Bosse case, Hunter’s office did not dispute the continued existence of the Chickasaw reservation. However, the attorney general contends the state still has jurisdiction over non-Indians, like Bosse, who commit crimes against Native Americans on reservations.

    The state appeals court rejected Hunter’s argument and rejected his request to reconsider that argument and a separate argument that Bosse waited too long to appeal his conviction on the grounds that the state didn’t have jurisdiction.

    The court agreed to hear Hunter’s argument that the Bosse ruling be put on hold while Hunter asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the arguments about jurisdiction.

    “Prosecutors and law enforcement across the affected parts of the state are grappling with the myriad of complications that have arisen as thousands of cases, both old and new, change hands jurisdictionally,” Hunter told the court.

    “If nothing else, prosecutors and law enforcement need certainty regarding the state of the law post-McGirt.”

    Bosse’s attorneys argued that Hunter’s plan to seek Supreme Court review didn’t meet the “good cause” threshold for the state court to recall its mandate in the Bosse case.

    “One side will not be fully satisfied with a particular outcome in any case,” Bosse’s attorneys told the court. “Hence, proper avenues for appeal are provided.”

    The state was allowed to seek Supreme Court review but not “usurp” Court of Criminal Appeals rules in doing so, they said.

    The Chickasaw Nation has told the court that Hunter's arguments about jurisdiction over non-Indians is wrong but that a 60-day delay in Bosse's case would be appropriate.

    https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...se/7160999002/
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  6. #26
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    Bosse to stay in Oklahoma custody while McGirt ruling is appealed to Supreme Court

    By Chris Caasteel
    The Oklahoman

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals agreed Thursday to grant a 45-day pause in overturning the murder convictions of death row inmate Shaun Michael Bosse, giving Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter time to seek U.S. Supreme Court review of key questions arising out of last year’s Indian reservation decision.


    The court’s ruling came after judges heard oral arguments from Hunter’s office and lawyers representing Bosse. The judges and attorneys appeared perplexed at times by how the legal process may play out in a seminal case in the transition to federal and tribal jurisdiction in criminal cases involving Indians.


    Though judges expressed confidence in their March 11 ruling that the state did not have jurisdiction to try Bosse for murder, some were concerned that transferring Bosse to federal custody might mean he would never be returned to the state even if the Supreme Court agrees with Hunter.


    The court’s order on Thursday will keep Bosse in state custody as Hunter pursues an appeal in the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. attorney’s office in Oklahoma City has filed a murder complaint against Bosse and is poised to take custody should Hunter’s efforts fail.


    Hunter said, “The 45-day stay will allow us time to file for a further stay from the U.S. Supreme Court so they have time to consider whether to grant us the opportunity to argue our case. … While we prepare our petition, my heart remains with the victims, including a family member of one of Bosse’s victims who was in the courtroom today.”


    Bosse was sentenced to death in McClain County for killing Katrina Griffin and her two children in 2010; Griffin and her children were members of the Chickasaw Nation.


    Bosse case recognized Chickasaw Nation reservation


    The Bosse case is a significant one in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court decision rendered last year that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation reservation was never disestablished.

    The high court's decision, in the case of convicted child rapist Jimcy McGirt, has resulted in the Court of Criminal Appeals ruling, in four separate criminal cases, that the reservations of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws and Seminoles also were never disestablished and that federal and tribal courts have jurisdiction over crimes involving Indians on the reservations


    The Bosse case is the one in which the Chickasaw reservation was formally recognized.


    Hunter has not disputed applying McGirt to the Chickasaw reservation. Instead, he contends that the state still had jurisdiction over Bosse because he was not a member of any tribe. Hunter also contends that Bosse shouldn’t have been allowed to appeal his convictions based on the McGirt ruling because the deadline had passed for him to raise new issues.

    The attorney general wants the Supreme Court to clarify whether the state retains jurisdiction over non-Indian defendants who commit crimes against Indians on reservations and whether the legal limits on appeals prohibit some inmates from seeking relief under the McGirt decision.

    The Court of Criminal Appeals, in its March decision, rejected Hunter’s arguments and last week rejected his request to rehear the case. The order issued Thursday effectively delays its decision overturning Bosse's convictions and recognizing the Chickasaw reservation from going into effect for 45 more days.


    During oral arguments on Thursday, Judge Robert L. Hudson said the court’s “good cause” test for granting a delay was likely met by the fact that the state could lose any chance of regaining custody of Bosse if the federal government takes custody and begins its own case.

    Federal public defender Emma V. Rolls, representing Bosse, said Bosse’s convictions would be reinstated if Hunter’s arguments prevailed with the U.S. Supreme Court. But Hudson said he had not seen any legal basis for the assumption that Bosse would be returned to state custody if Hunter prevailed.


    Oklahoma Solicitor General Mithun Mansinghani suggested to the judges that, if the administration takes a stance against the death penalty, the federal government might not want to return Bosse to the state’s death row.


    The Chickasaw Nation has filed briefs in the Bosse case arguing against Hunter's legal position but sanctioning a delay of up to 60 days to allow more time for the tribe's law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system to prepare for their new obligations.

    https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...se/7238875002/
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  7. #27
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    Hopefully with Barrett replacing Ginsburg we will see SCOTUS minimize the harm of arguably the worst decision in many years

    Court puts relief for Oklahoma inmate on hold amid uncertainty about scope of McGirt

    The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted a request by Oklahoma to allow the state to retain custody of a death-row inmate while the court considers whether to clarify the implications of last year’s decision holding that Oklahoma lacks jurisdiction over certain crimes committed on land reserved for Native Americans.

    The inmate, Shaun Bosse, was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2010 murders of Katrina Griffin and her two young children. He now claims that his conviction is invalid under McGirt v. Oklahoma because Griffin and her children were members of the Chickasaw Nation and the crime occurred within the boundaries of a Native American reservation. An Oklahoma appeals court agreed and threw out his conviction and sentence. If that ruling is allowed to take effect, Oklahoma will have to hand Bosse over to federal authorities (who have filed separate criminal charges against him). But the Supreme Court – over the objections of the court’s three liberal justices – granted the state’s request to put the Oklahoma court’s ruling on hold while the state files a petition asking the justices to take up the case on the merits.

    The case concerns the scope of last year’s 5-4 ruling in McGirt, in which Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the other liberal justices joined a decision by Justice Neil Gorsuch holding that a large portion of eastern Oklahoma, which was reserved for the Creek Nation in the 19th century, remains a reservation for purposes of a federal law that gives the federal government sole power to try certain major crimes committed by “any Indian” in “Indian country.” In the wake of McGirt, many inmates who were convicted in Oklahoma state court began to argue that their convictions were invalid on the basis that they, or their victims, were Native Americans. In Bosse’s case, the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals concluded that, even though Bosse himself is not a Native American, the state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute him under the reasoning of McGirt.

    Oklahoma came to the Supreme Court on an emergency basis last month, asking the justices to block the state court’s ruling and weigh in on whether states have the authority to prosecute crimes committed on Native American land by non-Native Americans. Oklahoma told the justices that this question is “now one of enormous importance to the State and to Indian victims” because of the number of people who live in the areas now recognized as reservations after McGirt. Allowing states to prosecute these kinds of cases, Oklahoma added, will provide “additional assurance that tribal members who are victims of crimes will receive justice, either from the federal government, state government, or both. It minimizes the chances abusers and murderers of Indians will escape punishment and maximizes the protection from violence perpetrated on Native Americans.”

    Bosse urged the justices to stay out of the dispute. Oklahoma’s argument that states should also be able to prosecute crimes against Native Americans runs contrary to over a century of the Supreme Court’s rulings, he argued. Oklahoma also did not show that it would be permanently harmed if the state court’s ruling were left in place, Bosse continued: All that would happen is that Bosse would be placed in federal custody for federal prosecution. If the Supreme Court eventually grants review of the case on the merits and reverses the state court’s ruling, Bosse continued, his conviction and death sentence would be reinstated. And although Oklahoma “also invokes concerns about other cases where, unlike here, the United States may not detain or prosecute,” Bosse told the justices, “if that is the worry, the State should seek stays there.”

    Acting U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar took the relatively unusual step of filing, without being asked by the justices, a “friend of the court” brief in which she agreed with Bosse that Oklahoma lacks the power to try him for offenses against Native Americans. There is “no basis,” Prelogar wrote, “to reverse the long-held understanding of the division of federal, state, and tribal jurisdiction in Indian country.” “To the contrary,” she concluded, “this Court has reaffirmed the established rule that a State does not have jurisdiction over offenses by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.”

    In a brief unsigned order on Wednesday morning, the court put the state court’s ruling on hold until Oklahoma can file its petition for review. If that petition is denied, the court indicated, then the state court’s ruling can go into effect; if the petition is granted, then the ruling will remain on hold until the Supreme Court issues its decision.

    The court’s three liberal justices – Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – all indicated that they would have denied Oklahoma’s request, but they did not provide any explanation for their objection. The other justices did not publicly record their votes, although Oklahoma needed at least five votes to stay the state court’s decision.

    https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/05/c...ope-of-mcgirt/
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  8. #28
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    Oklahoma Attorney General urges Supreme Court to overturn McGirt

    A year after losing the legal fight over the Muscogee (Creek) Nation’s reservation, the state of Oklahoma urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to overrule the McGirt decision and return criminal jurisdiction over Native Americans in eastern Oklahoma to state prosecutors and judges.

    "Simply put, the fundamental sovereignty of an American State is at stake," Oklahoma Attorney General John O'Connor told the high court in a brief filed Friday.

    The state’s arguments were made in the case of death row inmate Shaun Michael Bosse, and they represent what is likely a longshot attempt to persuade the justices to overturn the 5-4 decision that has reshaped the criminal justice system in much of Oklahoma.

    Four justices would have to agree to review Bosse’s case and reconsider the decision in McGirt versus Oklahoma that was rendered in July 2020. The court ruled in that decision that the Muscogee reservation was never officially disestablished and that convicted child rapist Jimcy McGirt should have been prosecuted in federal — rather than state — court because he is a Native American and the crime occurred in Indian Country.

    The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals this year extended the decision to the other members of the Five Tribes: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw and Seminole nations. The Bosse case was the one in which the court affirmed the Chickasaw reservation.

    “No recent decision of this Court has had a more immediate and destabilizing effect on life in an American State than McGirt v. Oklahoma,” O’Connor’s brief states.

    “The Court held in McGirt that a large area of Oklahoma, which at one time was within the boundaries of the Creek Nation, qualifies as 'Indian country’ for purposes of the Major Crimes Act … The results of this abrupt shift in governance have been calamitous and are worsening by the day.”

    In an interview, O'Connor said the McGirt decision has already spilled over into civil matters. The state recently sued the Biden administration for citing the McGirt decision and claiming authority over surface mining on the reservations.

    "The Supreme Court clearly did not intend for the decision to be read more broadly than the McGirt facts, but the Biden administration has distorted that ruling," O'Connor said.

    O'Connor and state Solicitor General Mithun Mansinghani said there would be numerous opportunities for the high court to refine and clarify the McGirt decision if it does not overturn it, though O'Connor expressed optimism that justices would use the Bosse case to review the impact of last year's decision.

    The attorney general’s office asked the Supreme Court to intervene in the Bosse case in April, just as Bosse was about to be transferred from state custody to the federal government.

    Bosse’s state conviction was overturned because he had killed three members of the Chickasaw Nation — Katrina Griffin and her two young children, Christian Griffin and Chasity Hammer — within the boundaries of the tribe’s reservation. Under federal law, crimes involving Native Americans in Indian Country must be prosecuted by federal or tribal prosecutors.

    But the attorney general’s office has argued that the state has concurrent jurisdiction when the accused, like Bosse, is not a Native American. Also, the state is arguing in the Bosse case that he shouldn’t have been able to appeal his convictions under the McGirt ruling because he hadn’t raised the issue of jurisdiction in his earlier appeals.

    The U.S. attorney's office in the Western District of Oklahoma, based in Oklahoma City, has filed murder charges against Bosse. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed ito keep Bosse in state prison temporarily and give the state a chance to file a petition arguing for the court to review the case.

    The court's next term begins in October.

    Attorneys for Bosse, the Chickasaw Nation and the U.S. Justice Department urged the court not to intervene in the case, saying the state was wrong about having concurrent jurisdiction over non-Indians and wrong about Bosse's right to file a new appeal.

    In a statement on Friday, Chickasaw Nation attorney Stephen Greetham said, "“We are carefully reviewing Oklahoma’s petition and will address it in due course. In the meantime, our focus remains working with our partners to keep our communities safe.”

    Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin, Jr., said O'Connor and Gov. Kevin Stitt were trying to undermine cooperation among tribes, the state and federal prosecutors in the wake of the McGirt decision.

    "With today's filing in Bosse v. Oklahoma, they have made clear this was never about protecting victims or stopping crime, but simply advancing an anti-Indian political agenda," Hoskin said. "The governor has never attempted to cooperate with the tribes to protect all Oklahomans. It is perfectly clear that it has always been his intent to destroy Oklahoma’s reservations and the sovereignty of Oklahoma tribes, no matter what the cost might be."

    https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news...rt/5514873001/
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  9. #29
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    Oklahoma AG drops appeal in state death penalty case

    Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor said Friday that he is dropping his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1st-degree murder case of death row inmate Shaun Bosse. O’Connor said he made the decision after a state appellate court ruled the high court’s decision in a landmark tribal sovereignty case — dubbed the McGirt decision — does not apply retroactively.

    As a result of that ruling, Bosse’s conviction and sentence were reinstated earlier this week. Bosse, who is not Native American, was convicted in the 2010 killings of Katrina Griffin and her 2 young children, who were Native American, on land within the Chickasaw Nation’s historic reservation.

    Still, O'Connor said he was pushing forward with U.S. Supreme Court appeals in other McGirt-related cases, asking the high court to either overturn or limit the decision. O'Connor claims last year's 5-4 decision was wrongly decided and has led to a “criminal justice crisis" in Oklahoma where federal and tribal courts are overwhelmed trying to prosecute cases that were previously handled in state courts.

    “Although the Bosse case has now been resolved, many other criminal convictions were overturned because of the McGirt decision," O'Connor said in a statement. “Each case is important to the victims of the terrible crimes at issue, so we will continue to appeal these decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court."

    Attorneys for some of the tribes have argued that the state’s dire warnings are overblown, and federal and tribal courts are working to handle the additional caseload.

    “If the state continues trying to overturn rather than implement the law, we will continue to shine a light in court on the risks that attend their placing political position ahead of the public’s interest in the law," Stephen Greetham, senior counsel for the Chickasaw Nation, said in a statement. “In the meantime, we renew our call for all governments to work together out of our shared commitment to the public’s safety and effective law enforcement.”

    (source: Associated Press)
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  10. #30
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Neil's Avatar
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    I initially thought the same thing but the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals reinstated his death sentence. They did the same for the other 3 that got their death sentences reduced. The mother of the girl that Miles Bench killed was thrilled the Oklahoma court of criminal appeals reinstated his sentence. O Conor can argue this again once the prisoners appeal their reinstated sentence which they are going to do.
    Last edited by Neil; 09-04-2021 at 09:25 PM.

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