United States v. Leonard Roland Dupree

Defendant Leonard Dupree, an Indian person, was charged under 18 U.S.C. § 1153 with assault with a dangerous weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113 (c). The alleged assault was committed upon another Indian and within the Indian country. The indictment was dismissed by the district court on the ground that 18 U.S.C. § 113 (c) was unconstitutionally vague. We reverse.

Title 18, section 1153 of the United States Code confers federal jurisdiction over the offense of assault with a dangerous weapon when committed by an Indian within the Indian country. Additionally, section 1153, as amended in 1966 and 1968, provides that the offense be defined and punished in accordance with the laws of the state in which the offense was committed. However this borrowing provision was held to violate the equal protection requirement of the Fifth Amendment when applied in an indictment charging an assault committed by an Indian upon another Indian. United States v. Cleveland, 503 F.2d 1067 (9th Cir. 1975). Hence the defendant, pursuant to section 1153 as it stood prior to the 1966 and 1968 amendments, was subject to the applicable federal statute rather than the law of the state in which the alleged…