Here:
Questions presented:
The Major Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1153, grants the federal courts exclusive jurisdiction over listed offenses committed by an “Indian.”
The Questions Presented are:I. How does one determine whether a defendant is an Indian?
II. Is Indian status a jury question?
Lower court materials here.
Here are the materials in State v. Nobles:
Lower court materials here.
Here are the materials in State v. Nobles:
News coverage:
Here.
Excerpts:
After the act was passed, researchers from Michigan State University studied the application of the death penalty in North Carolina and found that peremptory challenges had been used to remove blacks from juries at a rate more than twice that of whites, a rate that was even higher in Cumberland County. Removing potential jurors solely on the basis of race has been ruled unconstitutional.
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Mr. Golphin and Mr. Augustine are black, and Ms. Walters is a Lumbee Indian. They were convicted of unrelated murders and have been on death row at least 10 years. Their victims included whites and blacks; in Mr. Golphin’s and Mr. Augustine’s cases, the victims were law enforcement officers.
A summary of the study is here.
A paper by the study’s authors, Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien, in the Iowa Law Review about the study is here.
Turtle Talk 