John O’Connor, Oklahoma’s attorney general, recently informed state law enforcement agencies that their authority to prosecute criminal cases perpetrated by non-Native defendants against Native victims on tribal lands will now be expanded, due to last month’s Supreme Court ruling that widened the state’s jurisdiction in such cases.
The Court’s ruling, which was reached in a narrow 5-4 vote, agreed with the state of Oklahoma’s previous arguments that Congress never explicitly prevented states from prosecuting non-Native defendants on Native lands. Rather, it asserted that states and federal authorities“ have concurrent jurisdiction to prosecute crimes committed by non-Indians against Indians in Indian country.” The opinion also made no distinction between the different types of land that may be considered “Indian country.”
A memo sent by the attorney general’s office lauded the fact that there is “no longer any land within Oklahoma where a non-Indian defendant can escape justice.”
Law enforcement agencies were instructed to allow state prosecutors to have first say when it comes to filing charges for cases involving non-Native defendants on Native land, instead of U.S. attorneys. Additionally, state prosecutors were given the green light to pursue past cases that were not filed by U.S. attorney offices.
O’Connor’s memo states that “district attorneys should contact and coordinate with all law enforcement agencies within their jurisdiction to obtain records of any non-Indian defendants who were referred to the federal government but not prosecuted.”
Meanwhile, U.S. attorney Clint Johnson from the Northern District of Oklahoma recently told the Oklahoman that his office “has concurrent jurisdiction with the State and has a longstanding trust responsibility with the Tribes,” and added that they “will not abdicate that trust responsibility.”
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma will continue to evaluate cases involving Native American victims in partnership with local district attorneys,” said Johnson.
In response, local tribes have noted that O’Connor is not long for office, having been defeated in the Republican primary on June 28.
Muscogee (Creek) Nation spokesman Jason Salsman told the Oklahoman that “Our office of Attorney General will be reaching out to the State to better understand the intentions and implications of this guidance that Oklahoma’s outgoing attorney general is distributing. “
He added: ““Regardless of the new state jurisdiction wrongly conjured by the Supreme Court, the public interest is best served when the State and tribal nations work collaboratively. This is particularly important in cases where tribal nations continue to exercise jurisdiction on their lands over non-Indians who victimize Indians in crimes covered by the Violence Against Women Act. The fact that we have heard nothing about this directive from Attorney General O’Connor is saddening but unsurprising given his open hostility to any form of collaboration with tribal governments — a hostility that voters recently rejected.”
