Death On The Crow Reservation

A Black man was convicted in a federal court of murdering another Black man on an Indian reservation inside a newly admitted Western state, and was sentenced to death. Neither man was an Indian. The prosecution relied on the state's enabling act, in which the state had disclaimed title to Indian lands and agreed they would remain 'under the absolute jurisdiction and control' of Congress; it argued this kept crimes on the reservation in federal hands. The defence argued that the disclaimer concerned only title to and control of the Indian lands, not criminal jurisdiction, so a killing between two non-Indians on the reservation could be tried only by the state courts.