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Jurisdiction

Why is it that some cases of homicide are considered federal offenses and others are handled in state or tribal courts? The answer involves the concept of jurisdiction. In its most basic definition, jurisdiction has to do with which court has the ability to hear and decide issues of law and fact. In homicide cases, three jurisdictions may have the ability to hear the case: state, tribal, and federal.

Most people are familiar with the idea of “double jeopardy”: A person cannot be tried twice for the same crime. Double jeopardy comes into play once a person has been either acquitted or convicted of a crime. Yet some defendants are tried twice for what appears to be the same crime. Usually, these cases involve a trial in criminal court and a trial in civil court. However, there are cases in which a person is tried in two criminal courts. How is this possible? Isn't that a violation of double jeopardy? The answer is no, as long as the person is tried in two separate sovereigns. A sovereign is defined as an entity that is independent and in which supreme authority is vested.

Determining Jurisdiction

In the United States, there are three sovereign entities: the states, federally recognized Indian Nations, and the federal government. The laws of each sovereign establish the types of crimes over which each sovereign government has jurisdiction. A person can be tried by both the state and the federal government for what appears to be the same crime if both the state and the federal government have laws that apply to the activity. For example, the police officers who were accused of beating Rodney King, in Los Angeles, were found not guilty by a state court. Subsequently, they faced charges of violating King's civil rights, a federal offense, in a federal court.

Many factors come into play in determining which court has jurisdiction over a case. One of the most important is the location of the crime. In many cases, jurisdiction is a simple matter of whether the crime was committed on federal land (e.g., national parks, military installations, Indian reservations, etc). If it happened on federal land, the federal government usually has exclusive jurisdiction over the crime. This explains why Cary Stayner faced federal charges in the death of Joie Ruth Armstrong but faces state murder charges in the February 1999 deaths of Carol Sund, Julie Sund, and Silvina Pelossa. Armstrong was murdered inside Yosemite National Park, California, on federal land, whereas the other three women were killed outside the park, on state land.

Jurisdiction in Indian Country

The issue of jurisdiction becomes much more complicated when handling crimes committed in Indian country. The legal definition of Indian country for federal jurisdiction purposes usually means “(a) all land within the limits of any reservation under the jurisdiction of the United States government, (b) all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States, and (c) all Indian allotments, the Indian titles to which have not been extinguished” (BigFoot & Braden, 1998).

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