Davis

Petitioner was convicted of murder committed during a robbery. He was sentenced to life imprisonment and has been transferred to the United States Penitentiary at Alcatraz, where he is now serving his sentence. The jurisdiction of the federal court over the crime of murder committed in South Dakota is predicated upon the allegation that the crime was committed within an Indian Reservation (the Rosebud Indian Reservation). His petition to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Southern Division, is based upon his allegation that the store in which the robbery and murder occurred was not within the Indian Reservation and, consequently, not within the jurisdiction of the federal courts because, as he alleges, the land upon which the building was located had been allotted and patented to an Indian in severalty and thereafter had been sold by him to a white citizen. He therefore claims that the land was no longer within the reservation. His petition for release on habeas corpus was denied and he appeals.

The first question on this appeal is whether or not such a jurisdictional point can be raised in habeas corpus proceedings after trial and…