Chester Guith v. United States

Appellant brings this appeal from a judgment of conviction of statutory rape of an Indian girl.

Although the indictment charged violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1152 , the district judge instructed the jury that the statute upon which the indictment properly rested was 18 U.S.C. § 2032 . This error in citation of the statute alleged to have been violated did not mislead the accused to his prejudice, and so is not ground for reversal of the conviction. Fed.Rules Crim.Proc. Rule 7(c), 18 U.S.C.; United States v. Hutcheson, 1941, 312 U.S. 219, 229 , 61 S.Ct. 463 , 85 L.Ed. 788 .

The alleged criminal act took place on appellant’s ranch located within the exterior boundaries of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Appellant’s title was acquired by tax deed from Glacier County, Montana, without express reservation of any Federal jurisdiction over the land. 43 Stat. 252 (1924); Goudy v. Meath, 1906, 203 U.S. 146 , 27 S.Ct. 48 , 51 L.Ed. 130 ; Glacier County, Montana v. United States, 9 Cir., 1938, 99 F.2d 733 ; cf. Williams v. United States, 9 Cir., 1954, 215 F.2d 1 , certiorari denied 1955, 348 U.S. 938 , 75 S.Ct. 358 .

This circumstance, appellant urges, places the alleged offense beyond the…