TULSA, Okla. – Cherokee citizen and brother of Governor Kevin Sitt, Marvin Stitt lost an appeal with the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals (OCCA) on March 6. Marvin Stitt was convicted of aggravated speeding following a non-jury trial and was fined $250 in the City of Tulsa Municipal Court. In an attempt to appeal the conviction, Marvin Stitt sued the city. The Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals ruled that Marvin would not be dismissed from paying the fine.
This case follows two others involving the City of Tulsa and its jurisdiction to prosecute tribal citizens who commit crimes on the MCN Reservation despite the Supreme Court’s McGirt decision that affirmed the tribe’s right to prosecute tribal citizens for crimes committed on the reservation.
In the first case, City of Tulsa v. OCCA a judge ruled that the city does have jurisdiction over misdemeanor crimes committed by Native Americans who are not MCN citizens. In the other case, Hooper v. Tulsa, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city does not have jurisdiction over municipal crimes committed by tribal citizens.
Both cases involved defendants who were citizens of a tribal nation, but not MCN and both involved traffic violations. Nicholas O’Brien is an Osage citizen and Justin Hooper is a Choctaw citizen. O’Brien was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, Hooper was issued
Regarding Marvin Stitt’s conviction, Judge David B. Lewis released the following opinion,
“I concur in the Court’s holding regarding the Curtis Act and Hooper v. City of Tulsa, but respectfully dissent from the remainder of the opinion for reasons stated in my separate opinion in City of Tulsa v. O’Brien. The Court should reverse this conviction of an Indian defendant in an Oklahoma municipal court for a crime committed within the Muscogee Creek Reservation. Congress has never conferred criminal jurisdiction on the State or its municipal subdivisions to prosecute Indians for crimes committed in Indian Country.”
According to a statement from Marvin Stitt’s lawyer, Brett Chapman, the OCCA’s ruling does not follow the precedent set by the McGirt decision.
“The ruling by the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in Stitt v. City of Tulsa lacks any real legal foundation and blatantly disregards well-established principles of federal Indian law and binding Supreme Court precedent. This decision is the crowning achievement of a recent spate of anti-Indigenous rulings handed down by these judges, all of which serve to circumvent the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma, eroding tribal sovereignty and violating treaty rights in the process.” Chapman said. “Their decision is not only legally flawed but also a dangerous step toward erasing the recognition of tribal authority that has been settled law for well over a century. By allowing the State of Oklahoma to force jurisdiction in a manner inconsistent with federal law, the handful of judges of this court have disregarded the foundational legal framework that protects tribal self-governance.”
MCN Press Secretary Jason Salsman echoed Chapman’s statement, affirming this case will continue to be supported by the Nation in its fight for sovereignty post McGirt.
“It’s unfortunate that this OCCA ruling, just as in the O’Brien case, has once again sided with the wrong side of plain language law.” Salsman said. “We’ll continue to aggressively litigate these issues in the federal courts to uphold long-standing legal precedent preventing the state and municipalities from prosecuting Indians within the Nation’s Reservation.”
According to Chapman, Marvin Stitt is currently seeking a rehearing and is evaluating a petition to be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
just pay up! your grand father paid for your Cherokee membership to bad you can’t use it! maybe next time!
you have no more right to break the law as the next person, being of Indian blood or not you have no more right to break the law than any other United States citizen just because you have Indian blood flowing through your veins