The case concerned an appeal by Jimcy McGirt, a Native American, who claimed his 1997 conviction for raping a child should be overturned because Oklahoma lacked…
The US Supreme Court has ruled that about half of the state of Oklahoma, including its second-biggest city, Tulsa, belongs to Native Americans and makes up their reservation area.
Jimcy McGirt, a member of the Seminole Nation, who was convicted in 1997 of raping a 4-year-old girl, brought the case citing the historical claim of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation to the land where the rape occurred.
Thursday’s ruling, historic for the indigenous population of the area, quashed McGirt’s conviction, which now essentially means that some tribe members prosecuted in state courts for offences committed on the said land can now challenge their convictions, unless they are brought against them by federal prosecutors.
The fresh ruling overturned McGirt’s prison sentence, but the 71-year-old man, who hadn’t previously denied his guilt, could, however, be tried in a federal court.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative appointed by US President Donald Trump, sided with the court’s four liberals and wrote his opinion bringing up the Trail of Tears, the forcible relocation of Native Americans in the 19th century, including the Creek Nation, to Oklahoma.
The US government said at the time that the new land would belong to the relocated tribes forever.
For their part, the Five Tribes of Oklahoma – Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, and Muscogee Nation – praised the Supreme Court’s decision voicing plans to work jointly with federal and state authorities to agree shared jurisdiction over the land, inhabited by 1.
