Whether a Negro Freeman who was murdered was a member of the Choctaw Tribe is a question of fact for the jury, and his non-Indian status may not be presumed.
Lucas v. United States, 163 U.S. 612 (1896), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that whether a Negro freedman was a member of the Choctaw Nation was a question of fact for the jury, and his non-Indian status may not be presumed.
The Choctaw Nation was one of the Five Civilized Tribes in the Indian Territory (now the eastern part of Oklahoma),[a] and under their treaty with the United States, were allowed to have its own court system to try Indian on Indian crime.[2] When the crime was Choctaw on Choctaw, the tribal courts would handle the trial, but if it involved a non-tribal member, the case was handled by the federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas.[3] Tribal members included freedmen, African-Americans who had been slaves and who had been adopted by the tribe after the Civil War.[4]
In 1894, Eli Lucas,[b] a member of the Choctaw Nation, was indicted in the Circuit Court for the Western District of Arkansas for the murder of Levy Kemp, an African-American.[6][c] In 1895, Lucas was tried in Judge Isaac Parker's court, where witnesses said that Lucas had followed Kemp after a ball game and killed him.[8][d] The defense claimed that Lucas was not truthful when he had boasted that he had killed Kemp, but that some other, unknown person had committed the murder.[10] Lucas was convicted of murder, and sentenced to hang.[11]
Lucas's attorneys filed an appeal, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.[12][e]
JusticeGeorge Shiras, Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.[14] Although the Court agreed that Kemp was not a Choctaw Freedman and therefore not a member of the tribe, it held that Judge Parker had erred.[15] The trial court should not have presumed that Kemp was not a member of the tribe, the government should have been required to prove that element in order to establish jurisdiction.[16] Shiras noted that §§ 2145–2146, Revised Statutes,[17] stated that the federal courts did not have jurisdiction over Indian on Indian crime where the tribe had a tribal court.[18] He also held that allowing John LeFlore testify as to what Kemp had told him was hearsay and inadmissible.[19] The Court ordered that Lucas be retried, and reversed his conviction.[20] Lucas was then released to the Choctaw Nation for trial.[21]
^The first constitution was adopted in 1826 and was modeled after the United States Constitution, providing for three branches of government. This included a court system.[1]
^Lucas was also charged with larceny and had committed assault and battery.[5]
^Treaty with the Choctaw and Chichasaw, Apr. 28, 1866, 14 Stat.769; Lucas v. United States, 163U.S.612 (1896); 2 Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties 918 (Charles J. Kappler ed., 1904).
^Mihesuah, at 63; John Rockwell Snowden, Wayne Tyndall, & David Smith, American Indian Sovereignty and Naturalization: It's a Race Thing, 80 Neb. L. Rev. 171, 210 (2001).
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