Emery L. Negonsott v. Harold Samuels, Warden, et al. (507 U.S. 99)

U.S. Supreme Court · decided February 24, 1993 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)

Citation
507 U.S. 99 · 113 S. Ct. 1119
Decided
February 24, 1993
Term
October Term 1992
Vote
9–0
Majority author
Justice Rehnquist
Issue area
Civil Rights
Disposition
Affirmed
Outcome
Petitioning party lost
Ideological direction
Conservative

Opinion excerpt

Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court. The question presented in this case is whether the Kansas Act, 18 U. S. C. §3243, confers jurisdiction on the State of Kansas to prosecute petitioner, a Kickapoo Indian, for the state-law offense of aggravated battery committed against another Indian on an Indian reservation. We hold that it does. ► — I Petitioner, Emery L. Negonsott, is a member of the Kickapoo Tribe and a resident of the Kickapoo Reservation in Brown County, Kansas. In March 1985, he was arrested by the county sheriff in connection with the shooting of another Indian on the Kickapoo Reservation. After a jury trial in the Browm County District Court, petitioner was found guilty of aggravated battery. Kan. Stat. Ann. §21-3414 (1988). The District Court set the conviction aside, however, on the ground that the Federal Government had exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute petitioner for the shooting under the Indian Major Crimes Act, 18 U. S. C. § 1153. The Kansas Supreme Court reinstated petitioner’s conviction, holding that the Kansas Act conferred jurisdiction on Kansas to prosecute “all crimes committed by or against Indians on Indian reservations located in Kansas.” State v. Nioce, 239 Kan. 127, 131, 716 P. 2d 585, 588 (1986). On remand, the Brown County District Court sentenced petitioner to imprisonment for a term of 3 to 10 years. Petitioner then…

Excerpt of a 21,126-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.

← Back to the decisions database