Murder On Ute Land

A white man was tried in a federal court and convicted of murdering another white man inside an Indian reservation lying within the borders of a state. The indictment relied on a statute extending federal criminal law to 'Indian country'. The prosecution argued that the reservation remained under federal jurisdiction, so the federal court could try the killing. After the verdict, the defendant moved to arrest judgment. He argued that when the state was admitted to the Union 'on an equal footing' with the original states, with no exception carved out for the reservation, the state gained jurisdiction over crimes between non-Indians there, leaving the federal court with no power to try him.