Oklahoma’s newly appointed attorney general asked the Supreme Court on Friday to overturn the historic ruling on tribal sovereignty, arguing last year’s decision was wrongly decided.
John O’Connor, a Republican, wrote in a petition the ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma last year, which determined the state of Oklahoma could not legally try a Creek citizen for criminal conduct in state court, “now drives thousands of crime victims to seek justice from federal and tribal prosecutors whose offices are not equipped to handle those demands.”
“Numerous crimes are going uninvestigated and unprosecuted, endangering public safety,” added O’Connor, who was appointed to the position of attorney general last month following the resignation of Michael Hunter.
The petition argues many convictions from decades ago cannot be prosecuted again, adding the 5-4 ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma last year is “jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in state tax revenue and calling into question the State’s regulatory authority within its own borders.”
SUPREME COURT RULES EASTERN HALF OF OKLAHOMA IS TRIBAL LAND
O’Connor’s petition requests the Supreme Court to consider narrowing the application of the decision by allowing violent felons convicted before the ruling to remain in state prisons. It also requests authority for the state to prosecute non-Native Americans who commit crimes against tribal citizens on reservation land.
Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. accused O’Connor and Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Cherokee Nation citizen, of attempting to enforce an “anti-Indian political agenda,” according to a statement posted on Facebook.
The Supreme Court decided last July that under the Indian Major Crimes Act, lands reserved for the Creek Nation in eastern Oklahoma constituted Indian Country.
The petition comes one day after a former Oklahoma death row inmate, whose legal challenge led to the court’s 2020 ruling, was reconvicted in federal court for kidnapping and murder in Indian Country.
Patrick Murphy, 52, argued the state did not have the jurisdiction to prosecute him because he is Native American. A jury on Thursday found Murphy guilty in the 1999 killing of George Jacobs.
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Murphy’s sentence will be determined at a later date. He faces up to life imprisonment, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Oklahoma, located in Muskogee.
