Case Name: Ed Ellis v. The United States
Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Oklahoma
Decision Date: 1902-07-17
Citations: 11 Okla. 653
Docket Number: 
Parties: Ed Ellis v. The United States.
Judges: Hainer, J., who presided in the court below, not sitting; Irwin, J., absent; all the other Justices concurring.
Reporter: Oklahoma Reports
Volume: 11
Pages: 653–655

Head Matter:
Ed Ellis v. The United States.
(Filed July 17, 1902.)
DISTRICT COURT AT PAWHUSKA — Jurisdiction. The district court at Pawhuska, in the Osage Indian reservation, has no jurisdiction of the crime of murder committed by a white person, not a member of the Indian tribes, on said reservation. Th£ case of Goodson v. The United States, 7 Okla. 117, followed and approved.
(Syllabus by the court.)
Error from the Pawhusha District Courtj before Bayard T. Hainer, Trial Judge.
Fitzpatrick & Leahy, and B. J. Hill, for plaintiff in error.
Horace Speed, United States Attorney, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Opinion of the court by
BuiiFORD, C. J.:
At tbe November term, 1897, of the district court sitting at Pawhuska, in the Osage. Indian reservation, an indictment ivas returned against the plaintiff in error, Ed Ellis, charging him with tbe crime of murder. Tbe defendant and one dames Kelsey were jointly charged with having killed and murdered one William Brown on the 31st day of October, 1897, in the Osage Indian reservation in the Territory of Oklahoma. Ellis was apprehended, tried at the April term, 1898, of the district court at Pawhuska, found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to serve a term of eight years in the Ohio state penitentiary, at Columbus, Ohio, where he is now confined. He was prosecuted by the Hnited States, and the court which tried and sentenced him was at the time sitting with and exercising the powers and jurisdiction of a Hnited States circuit court and distrct court.
The prisoner objected to the jurisdiction of the court at each step in the proceedings, and also to the competency, qualifications and manner of selecting both the grand and petit jurors in said cause.
After the conviction and sentence of Ellis, he appealed to this court. It is conceded by counsel both for the Hnited States and for the prisoner, that .the"questions presented by the record are identical with those decided by this court in the case of Goodson v. The United States, 7 Okla. 117.
Ellis is a white person and not a member of any Indian tribe. Brown, the person alleged to have been killed, was also a white person and not a member of an Indian tribe.
We held in the Goodson case that there were no residents of the Osage or Kaw reservations having the qualifications of jurors, and that the juries for the district court at Pawhuska, must be drawn from the jury box of the county to which these reservations were attached for judicial purposes. We also held in that case that the district court when sitting at Paw-huska in the Osage reservation, had no jurisdiction of crimes committed on the reservation by white persons;, but that such persons sbonld be tried in tbe district court of Pawnee county, tbe county to wbicb sueb reservation is attached for judicial purposes.
We now see no reason to change or modify tbe ruling in tbe Goodson case, and on tbe authority of that case tbe judgment of tbe district court at Pawhuska, in this case, is reversed, and tbe cause remanded to said court, with directions to dismiss said cause for want of jurisdiction, and that any further proceedings in said cause be bad in tbe district court of Pawnee county. And tbe warden of tbe Columbus, Ohio, penitentiary is directed to deliver the prisoner, Ed Ellis, to tbe United States marshal of Oklahoma, and said marshal is authorized to return said prisoner to the Territory of Oklahoma, and there bold him in tbe federal jail at Guthrie, subject to bail, ,to be allowed by tbe proper court, and subject to tbe further orders of the district court of Pawnee county, Oklahoma.
Hainer, J., who presided in the court below, not sitting; Irwin, J., absent; all the other Justices concurring.