UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Douglas Franklin WRIGHT, Defendant-Appellant

I. FACTS AND JURISDICTIONAL SETTING

The events central to consideration of this appeal, which would become known as the Warm Springs Murders, were set in motion in the Fall of 1991 when two young homeless men were approached in downtown Portland by a man offering them work outside the city. One of the young men was Randy Henry, who sometimes used the name Marty McDaniel. The other was McDaniel’s friend Tony Nelson. The pair accepted the man’s offer and left with him in a Toyota bearing Oregon license plates.

After a brief stop at the driver’s apartment in a nearby town, the trio drove to the Mt. Hood area. They then drove off the highway and into a forested area which, it turns out, was within the exterior boundaries of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Exiting the Toyota, the driver and Tony Nelson walked away from the car while McDaniel stood facing the opposite direction. Suddenly McDaniel heard a gunshot. Turning to the direction of the sound, he saw the driver with a long-barrelled revolver.

McDaniel did not stop to ask questions, but sprinted off barefoot through the woods to the highway where he was able to flag down a motorist named Ervie Dominguez. Dominguez drove…