Who Was The Dead Man?

A Choctaw man was convicted in a federal court of murdering a Black man in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory, and sentenced to death. The federal court could try the case only if the dead man was not a member of the Choctaw Nation; a killing between Choctaws belonged to the tribe's courts. At trial the prosecution relied on the victim's own out-of-court statements that he did not belong to the Indian country but had come from Arkansas, and the judge told the jury that finding the victim was Black meant he was a U.S. citizen and that the court had jurisdiction. The defence argued the government had not properly proved the victim's status.