I don’t think the system works. I think most people who have been really honest about what’s going on [in Indian country] have conceded that it’s a mess and that it’s broken. How does prosecution typically work in Indian country?
Some of my fellow law professors will kind of joke that Indian country jurisdiction is the most complicated area of American law, and I tend to agree with them—it’s extraordinarily complicated, and [often] doesn’t make a lot of sense. Essentially, tribal governments have criminal jurisdiction over any crime committed by an Indian person. So whether that be a purse-snatching or an arson case or a child-rape case or even a murder case, if the defendant is Indian, the tribe can prosecute that person—but its sentencing authority is limited, so a lot of tribes don’t see the point in prosecuting a murder case in tribal court if the maximum sentence is one year. If the tribe is located in a place like Wyoming, which has a federal jurisdiction framework—in other words the concurrent jurisdiction is with the federal government—the U.S. attorney’s office has jurisdiction over that crime in addition to the tribe’s authority. This is especially pertinent in cases in which the defendant is non-Indian, because if the defendant is non-Indian, the tribe cannot prosecute, no matter what the crime is." Get the Story:
New Law Attempts to Bring Justice to Indian Country (Indian Country Today 12/1)
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