18 January 2022 :
Supreme Court lets stand decision that McGirt not retroactive
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday put off a decision on whether to review its ruling that reshaped criminal jurisdiction in eastern Oklahoma, but justices let stand a decision by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals that greatly limits the number of people who can challenge their convictions for past crimes on newly affirmed Indian reservations.
The high court could continue to discuss in the coming weeks whether to review its 2020 ruling in the case of McGirt v Oklahoma that the Muscogee (Creek) reservation was never disestablished. The McGirt decision has led to the affirmation of 5 other reservations in Oklahoma and has shifted criminal jurisdiction to the federal government and tribes in cases that involve Native Americans on the reservations.
The Oklahoma attorney general’s office has filed dozens of petitions asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the McGirt decision or, short of that, to declare that Oklahoma can still prosecute non-Indians for crimes committed against Native Americans on the reservations.
The court’s refusal to review the case of Clifton Merrill Parish and 2 others on Monday was a victory for the state. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in Parish’s case that, even though he is a Choctaw and his crime was committed on the Choctaw reservation, he could not appeal his prosecution by the state because his conviction had already been upheld on an earlier appeal in which he did not make a jurisdictional claim.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals decision in the case, handed down in August, that the McGirt decision was not retroactive greatly limited the number of people who could appeal past convictions, potentially cutting off thousands of appeals.
