James Acunia v. United States

Acunia was convicted of having committed, on an Indian reservation, an act of incest upon his daughter. His appeal presents the question of whether, under the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13 , it was proper to refer to the law of Arizona for definition of, and punish ment for, the crime of incest as such crime was listed in 18 U.S.C. § 1153 at the time of the alleged offense, November 9, 1965.

Jurisdiction of the District Court was predicated on 18 U.S.C. § 3231 , and ours rests upon 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 , 1294, and 1915.

The District Court ruled that the offense charged in the indictment constituted a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1153 . Although at the time of the alleged offense no federal statute contained a definition or prescribed a punishment for the crime of incest, the District Court determined that the Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13 , required reference to state law to supply the definition and punishment for the crime.

18 U.S.C. § 1152 , specified in the indictment, subjects non-Indians to the federal criminal law for offenses committed in Indian territory. The section also covers Indians who commit offenses in Indian country but makes an exception important…