United States v. Anthony Robert Wheeler

This case presents the question whether Indian tribal courts and federal district courts are “arms of different sovereigns” for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause. We hold that they are not arms of separate sovereigns and, therefore, that an individual cannot be tried for the same offense before both an Indian tribal court and a court of the United States Government. Furthermore, we hold that the guarantee against double jeopardy has been violated in this case.

The defendant, a Navajo Indian, plead guilty in Navajo tribal court on October 18, 1974 to charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and disorderly conduct, the charges growing out of an incident that had occurred on Indian territory two days earlier. Over a year later the defendant was indicted in federal court for carnal knowledge of a female Indian under the age of sixteen years. There is no dispute that the federal charge grew out of the same incident and the same actions of the defendant as the “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” charge before the Navajo tribal court. Before trial, the district court judge dismissed the indictment “on the basis that the defendant [had] already once been placed…