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High court to hear arguments again in Oklahoma murder case

June 27, 2019 GMT

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In this June 29, 2011 photo provided by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, Patrick Murphy is pictured. The Supreme Court says it will hear arguments a second time in a case involving Murphy, an Oklahoma man who argued that the state had no right to prosecute him because he is a Native American and the crime occurred on Indian land. (Oklahoma Department of Corrections via AP)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Thursday it will hear arguments a second time in a case involving an Oklahoma man who argued that the state had no right to prosecute him because he is a Native American and the crime occurred on land belonging to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

The justices announced they will hear a new round of arguments in the case of Patrick Murphy. The justices will begin hearing arguments again in October. Murphy was convicted of killing a fellow tribe member in 1999.

A federal appeals court found Oklahoma had no right to try him for a crime that was committed on American Indian land.

The justices did not explain their decision to hear a second round of arguments.

State Attorney General Mike Hunter has said the lower court’s ruling, if affirmed, would plunge eastern Oklahoma into “civil, criminal and regulatory turmoil.”

The Creek Nation’s original territory encompasses more than 3 million acres (1.2 million hectares), including most of what became the state’s second-largest city, Tulsa.

“This case has implications for millions of Oklahomans, both tribal and non-tribal citizens,” Hunter said in a statement Thursday.

Muscogee (Creek) Nation officials, however, say those concerns are overblown and maintain the tribe’s reservation boundaries were never disestablished by Congress.