Pawhuska Journal-Capital
LAW
Jul
Judgment overturned for
second convicted killer
15
2020
Page By Chris Casteel
B002 The Oklahoman
Clip
resized An Oklahoma prison
62%
inmate convicted of first-
degree murder and another
who pleaded guilty to man-
slaughter have had their
judgments vacated in the
wake of the U.S. Supreme
Court’s ruling that the
state lacked authority to
prosecute some Native
Americans.
The judgments of Joe
Johnson Jr., serving a life
sentence for a shooting
death in Seminole County,
and Travis Wayne Bentley,
serving 36 years for killing
a man in a car wreck while
under the influence of
methamphetamine, were
vacated by the high court
after justices rendered their
decision in the Muscogee
(Creek) Nation case.
Two others, including a
man serving multiple sen-
tences for forcible sodomy
and lewd or indecent pro-
posals to a child, also won
new trials immediately after
the historic high court deci-
sion, according to Supreme
Court records.
The court had delayed
action on those four appeals
until making a decision in
the Creek reservation case.
The Supreme Court ruled
Thursday that convicted
child rapist Jimcy McGirt
was wrongly tried by the
state of Oklahoma because
he is an enrolled tribal
member whose crimes
were committed on land
that is part of the Creek
Property of OPS News Tracker and members of the Oklahoma Press Association.
reservation.
The high court found
Congress had never offi-
cially terminated the
reservation before Okla-
homa statehood in 1907
and that McGirt should
have been tried in federal
court. The decision also
resolved the case of Okla-
homa death row inmate
Patrick Murphy, a Creek
Nation member who had
raised the same issue; the
justices had deadlocked
on Murphy’s case before
accepting McGirt’s appeal.
The state of Oklahoma
warned in both cases that a
ruling in the inmates’ favor
could mean hundreds of
inmates getting out of state
prisons.
“We have currently over
1,700 inmates whose crimes
were committed in the
former Indian territory who
identify as Native Ameri-
can,’’ Mithun Mansinghani,
the state’s solicitor general,
told justices in May.
The state’s claims in the
McGirt and Murphy cases
were challenged by numer-
ous attorneys on the other
side of the case and by other
sources.
Many will be barred from
making new claims to fed-
eral courts, while others
won’t risk the possibility
of harsher federal sen-
tences, said McBride, the
former attorney general
for the Seminole Nation of
Oklahoma.
Murphy, sentenced to
death for killing George
Jacobs on a rural McIntosh
County road in 1999, appar-
ently had his life spared by
the Supreme Court’s ruling.
McBride said the Major
Crimes Act, which governs
prosecutions of crimes
involving Native Ameri-
cans, requires Indian tribes
to “opt in” if they want the
death penalty as an available
sentence. The Creeks have
not opted in, he said, mean-
ing he would not be eligible
for the death penalty.
The Oklahoma attorney
general’s office confirmed
that; a Creek spokesper-
son did not respond to an
inquiry.
A spokesman for the
attorney general said there is
typically a 25-day lag before
the Supreme Court man-
dates reach lower courts.
That means it will likely
be weeks before McGirt,
Murphy and the other four
inmates are transferred to
federal custody.
McBride, who leads the
Indian Law and Gaming
Practice for Crowe & Dun-
levy, predicted that the
U.S. attorney’s office in the
eastern district of Okla-
homa would seek charges
through indictments or
information against McGirt
and Murphy.
Though the decision
issued on Thursday was
specific to the Creek res-
ervation, it has already
impacted Oklahoma cases
in which the crimes were
committed in other parts
of the state.