How To Commit Murder... And Get Away With It

Orin Kerr at Volokh points us to this fabulous article by Brian Kalt in the Georgetown Law Journal. James Taranto explains Kalt's thesis, which is that one could legally commit murder in Idaho's portion of Yellowstone National Park...

This is possible, according to Kalt, because of an oddity in the federal courts' jurisdiction: Yellowstone is under federal jurisdiction, which means state law does not apply. An 1894 law defines the federal District of Wyoming as including the whole park, including the portions in Idaho and Montana, which means that any crime committed within the park would be tried in federal district court in Wyoming.

But here's the rub: The Sixth Amendment stipulates that a jury in a federal trial must be "of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." That means that if you commit a crime in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, the jury must consist of people who live in both Idaho and the Wyoming District, which is to say, the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, whose population is zero. Thus if you insist on a jury trial, which is your constitutional right, the government will be unable to try you. (The Montana portion of the park has an adult population of 41, making it at least theoretically possible to assemble a jury for a crime committed there.)

You know how rare it is to read something interesting in a law review? Yes, I'm kidding, but you gotta love the fact that someone researched this.