'Complete, dysfunctional chaos': Oklahoma reels after Supreme Court ruling on Indian tribes

[mahatmakanejeeves]

National

‘Complete, dysfunctional chaos’: Oklahoma reels after Supreme Court ruling on Indian tribes

By Annie Gowen and Robert Barnes
Yesterday at 9:00 a.m. EDT

Kyle Willis hadn’t seen Kimberly Graham in years, since the day she was sentenced to 107 years in prison after she drunkenly plowed her truck into a group of motorcyclists in Tulsa, killing five people, including his mother and stepfather.

So it was a shock when he saw her at a court hearing last month — tanned, dressed in a frilly purple top and jeans and laughing — a free woman. Graham, who is Native American, was let out of prison in April after a Supreme Court decision last year that found that a large part of eastern Oklahoma is still Indian country. Despite a century of state and local prosecutions, the court ruled that crimes there were the province of federal and tribal courts.

“She’s enjoying life as if nothing ever happened,” said Willis, 34, of Broken Arrow, Okla., who said the sight of Graham left him numb. “It’s bizarre. It’s crazy.”

The Supreme Court’s landmark decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma said prosecution of Native Americans for crimes in the expanded Indian country must be carried out in federal and tribal courts, rather than by state or local officials. It was celebrated across the country by Native Americans last July, who saw it as a historic affirmation of treaties signed with the U.S. government in the 1800s.

But in the year since, the ruling has upended Oklahoma’s criminal justice system, imperiled convictions in thousands of cases, sowed confusion for police and emergency responders and led to the direct release of more than 50 criminals convicted on charges including second-degree murder and child abuse, state records show.

And there may be wider impacts for the region, which covers 19 million acres in eastern Oklahoma, includes a portion of the state’s second-biggest city, Tulsa, and is home to 1.8 million people.

{snip}

By Annie Gowen
Annie Gowen is a correspondent for The Post's National desk. She was the India bureau chief from 2013-2018. Twitter https://twitter.com/anniegowen

By Robert Barnes
Robert Barnes has been a Washington Post reporter and editor since 1987. He joined The Post to cover Maryland politics, and he has served in various editing positions, including metropolitan editor and national political editor. He has covered the Supreme Court since November 2006. Twitter https://twitter.com/scotusreporter

[2naSalit]

1. I was wondering how that would impact things like the state courts...

And other administrative entities.

[3Hotdogs]

2. That's fucked up.

[snpsmom]

3. Hoping this will be the beginning of reform

for a broken system, not only prison and justice system, but the system of interaction between Native American nations and U.S. state and federal entities. Native Americans are incarcerated at roughly twice the rate of whites in this country.

https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/04/22/native/

"In 2010, there were a total of 37,854 American Indian/Alaskan Natives in adult correctional facilities, including 32,524 men and 5,132 women (and 198 who were 17 or younger). That is equivalent to a total incarceration rate of 1,291 per 100,000 people, more than double that of white Americans (510 per 100,000). In states with large Native populations, such as North Dakota, American Indian/Alaskan Native incarceration rates can be up to 7 times that of whites....

Oklahoma tops the list as the state with the highest number of American Indian/Alaskan Natives incarcerated, followed by Arizona, Alaska, and California. However, this data is not broken down further by sex and race."

[Scrivener7]

4. This is a really important counterpoint to the OP article. This is a really difficult and tangled

situation, badly handled. But it can't be forgotten that it's purpose is to begin an attempt to redress centuries of abuse and discrimination.

I hope that the baby doesn't get thrown out with the bathwater here. Take the most violent of those released and retry them quickly in federal or native courts. But honor the original agreement.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. No problem. I welcome all input, rebuttals included. Thank you. NT

[Scrivener7]

7. I don't think it's a rebuttal. It's just two sides of what needs to be

looked at to make the justice system just for Native Americans.

I think both of you presented essential considerations.

[ret5hd]

5. Think of the chaos caused by...

being forced to uproot your life in Florida, Georgia, etc and March on foot, young, old, sick, healthy, and dumped into a foreign environment where you don’t know the weather patterns, the native foods available, the available clean water sources, etc etc etc.

Fuck ‘em.