[Vision2020] Your Own Private Crime Spree

[Ron Force]

MessageDan, I think dirt bikes are illegal in Yellowstone, but if the
article is correct, have at it!



The “zone of death” that motivated this Essay sits at the perimeter of
Yellowstone

National Park. The problem with Yellowstone is that it does not quite fit in
Wyoming: Nine

percent of the park overflows into Montana (about 260 square miles worth)
and Idaho (about 50

square miles). The park was established in 1872, well before the three
states were added to the

Union in 1889 and 1890.14 When the states were admitted, each ceded
exclusive jurisdiction of

its portion of Yellowstone to the federal government.15   Yellowstone is a
federal enclave, in other

words, and the states cannot enforce state law there.16

This makes the District of Wyoming the only district court that includes
land in

multiple states.20

>From an administrative standpoint, this may be an uncommonly sensible law.
But the

issue is not whether the law is wise; rather, it is whether it is
incompatible with the United States

Constitution. And it is.

Say that you are in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, and you decide to
spice up your

vacation by going on a crime spree. You make some moonshine, you poach some
wildlife, you

strangle some people and steal their picnic baskets. You are arrested,
arraigned in the park, and

bound over for trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming before a jury drawn from the
Cheyenne area.21 But

Article III, Section 2 plainly requires that the trial be held in Idaho, the
state in which the crime

was committed. Perhaps if you fuss convincingly enough about it, the case
would be sent to

Idaho. But the Sixth Amendment then requires that the jury be from the state
(Idaho) and the

district (Wyoming) in which the crime was committed. In other words, the
jury would have to be

drawn from the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park, which, according
to the 2000

Census, has a population of precisely zero.22 (The Montana portion—should
you choose to

rampage there—has an adult population of a few dozen, which might
nevertheless present Sixth

Amendment problems as well.23)

The Constitution entitles you to a jury trial and an impartial jury of
inhabitants of the

state and district where the crime was committed. The U.S. Code steps on the
rusty nail; it makes

it impossible to satisfy both provisions in the case of the Yellowstone
State-Line Strangler.

Assuming that you do not feel like consenting to trial in Cheyenne, you
should go free.


**********************************************
Ron Force         Moscow ID 83844

 rforce at moscow.com
**********************************************


  where's this 50 square miles and how do I get my dirt bike there?

  DC
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