Williams v. United States

In 1946 appellant was convicted in the United States court for the district of Oregon of the crime of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Recently he moved in that court pursuant to 28 U.S.C.A. § 2255 for vacation of the sentence on the ground of lack of jurisdiction in a federal court to entertain the cause. The matter is before us upon appeal from an order denying the motion.

The indictment in the case alleged that appellant is an Indian ward of the United States, being carried on the tribal rolls of the Klamath Tribe. It charged that on and within the confines of the Klamath Indian reservation in Oregon the accused murdered one Smith, also an Indian carried on the rolls of the Tribe. While the evidence taken at the trial is not before us, it was stated by the district judge, and is not disputed, that the proof showed both the slayer and his victim to be unemancipated Indians under the care and control of the Superintendent of the Klamath reservation. The crime was committed on land which had been patented in fee to certain Indian allottees and later sold by them to Hazel Hecocta, appellant’s wife. Hazel was likewise an Indian who had not been emancipated. The land…