The Zone of Death
You’re reading my newsletter, Terra Nullius, on the weird and interesting intricacies of the countries and places that make up our world. It currently goes out to around 1,000 people every week. You can subscribe here:
Given it’s the US General Election today, I thought I might write about an American topic that has interested me for some time and take your minds off the never-ending news.
Yellowstone National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world. 3,500 square miles filled with free-ranging bison, wolves and bears. But 50 of those square miles carry a risk far greater than being mauled by a grizzly, as they are the only part of the United States where you could commit any crime and get away with it.
Yellowstone is mostly in the state of Wyoming, but also slightly extends into neighbouring Montana and Idaho. As it’s a national park, it comes under exclusively federal jurisdiction, and the US District Court for Wyoming is responsible for any criminal cases coming out of it, even if they are committed in the areas of the park in Idaho or Montana. Simple enough, no?
The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution requires any jury to come from both the court district and the state where the crime took place. If, for instance, a poacher kills a bison in a part of the park that’s in Wyoming, the jury in your case would be people who live in the Wyoming part of Yellowstone. If they tried to do it in the Montana section, the jury would be residents of the Montana section. But then you get to the part of the park that’s in Idaho, and there’s a problem.
The poacher in Idaho gets arrested and taken to the US District Court for Wyoming to answer for his crimes. As is his right, he demands a jury trial, and under the Sixth Amendment the judge sends out letters summoning residents of the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park for jury duty. Except no one lives in the 50 square miles that make up the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park. The poacher cannot receive his fair trial as required by the Constitution and is discharged free to go, and there is nothing the US Government can do about it.
The best-case scenario is a man finds an ingenious trick to eat protected species whenever he wants. The worst-case scenario is murder.
The quirk has been called the ‘Zone of Death’ and was first noticed in 2005 by the law professor Brian Kalt while researching the Sixth Amendment. Ever since he published a paper on this lawless land, he has been trying in vain to get the government to fix the problem.
An author even included the Zone of Death in a novel where the central plot revolves around the loophole, which got the attention of Mike Enzi, a US Senator for Wyoming. But even after he raised it in Washington, Congress and the Department for Justice declined to solve the problem, stating it was a ‘harmless’ issue.
Thankfully in the 15 years since Kalt made his discovery, no felonies that have been committed in the Zone of Death. That we know of.
The best Wikipedia article I have read this week
The Ceremonial Official to Confucius – The Republic of China (Taiwan) has a law that requires governments to give a cabinet post to a direct descendant of Confucius, who died more than 2,000 years ago. Until recently they also received a cabinet minister’s salary.
Books I am reading
The Spy and the Traitor by Ben Macintyre – One of the best accessible books of history I have read. Tells the story of Kim Philby and the rest of the Cambridge Spy Ring, and how they got brought crashing down.
Treason in the Blood, by Anthony Cave Brown – The above book then led me to buy this book, about Kim Philby’s father St John, the man who was an extremely significant figure in the creation of Saudi Arabia.
A Gentleman in Moscow – And finally, the above two led me to reread one of my favourite novels, set in Moscow’s grandest hotel from the Revolution up until the thawing of the Cold War.
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