An Alford plea, in United States law, is a guilty plea in criminal court, whereby a defendant in a criminal case does not admit to the criminal act and asserts innocence. In entering an Alford plea, the defendant admits that the evidence presented by the prosecution would be likely to persuade a judge or jury to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges and on the same facts, following a valid acquittal or conviction. As described by the U.S. Supreme Court in its unanimous decision concerning Ball v. United States 163 U.S. 662 (1896), one of its earliest cases dealing with double jeopardy, "the prohibition is not against being twice punished, but against being twice put in jeopardy; and the accused, whether convicted or acquitted, is equally put in jeopardy at the first trial."
The plea bargain is any agreement in a criminal case between the prosecutor and defendant whereby the defendant agrees to plead guilty or nolo contendere to a particular charge in return for some concession from the prosecutor. This may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to a less serious charge, or to one of the several charges, in return for the dismissal of other charges; or it may mean that the defendant will plead guilty to the original criminal charge in return for a more lenient sentence.
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. The Arapaho language, Hinónoʼeitíít, is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre (Ahe/A'ananin), whose people are considered to have separated from the Arapaho at an early time. The Blackfeet and Cheyenne also speak Algonquian languages, but theirs are quite different from Arapaho.
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
Trial in absentia is a criminal proceeding in a court of law in which the person who is subject to it is not physically present at those proceedings. in absentia is Latin for "in the absence". Its meaning varies by jurisdiction and legal system.
Washakie was a prominent leader of the Shoshone people during the mid-19th century. He was first mentioned in 1840 in the written record of the American fur trapper, Osborne Russell. In 1851, at the urging of trapper Jim Bridger, Washakie led a band of Shoshones to the council meetings of the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1851). Essentially from that time until his death, he was considered the head of the Eastern Shoshones by the representatives of the United States government.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie was an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Miniconjou, and Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851.
Michael Iver Peterson is an American novelist who was convicted in 2003 of murdering his second wife, Kathleen Peterson, on December 9, 2001. Peterson was granted a new trial which was scheduled to begin on May 8, 2017. On February 24, 2017, Peterson submitted an Alford plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter. He was sentenced to time already served and freed. Peterson's case is the subject of the documentary miniseries The Staircase, which started filming soon after his arrest in 2001 and followed events until his eventual Alford plea in 2017.
Wind River Indian Reservation is an Indian reservation, located in the central-western portion of the U.S. state of Wyoming, where Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Native American tribes currently live. It is the seventh-largest Indian reservation by area in the United States, encompassing a land area of 3,473.272 sq mi (8,995.733 km²), or land and water area of 3,532.010 sq mi (9,147.864 km²), and the fifth-largest American Indian reservation by population. The reservation constitutes just over one-third of Fremont County and over one-fifth of Hot Springs County.
The Lil' Miss murder is the name given to the murder case of Lisa Marie Kimmell, who disappeared while on a trip home from Colorado to Billings, Montana. Her murder would remain a cold case, until DNA profiling eventually linked a prison inmate to her kidnapping, rape and murder some 14 years later, which led investigators to the most vital piece of evidence in the case: Kimmell's missing car, which bore the distinctive personalized license plate that gave the case its name, "LIL MISS".
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Wyoming.
The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: "[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb..." The four essential protections included are prohibitions against, for the same offense:
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribal Nations are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of Wyoming face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Wyoming since 1977, and same-sex marriage was legalized in the state in October 2014. Wyoming law does not address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, though the cities of Jackson and Laramie have enacted ordinances outlawing such discrimination.
Denise Jefferson Casper, is a United States Federal Judge for the District Court of Massachusetts. Judge Denise Casper is most notable for being the first African-American woman to serve as a district court judge in Massachusetts since it was established two hundred and twenty three years ago. Judge Casper continues on the rich legacy held by the previous judges who broke racial barriers for judicial diversity in Massachusetts. David S. Nelson first, and Reginald C. Lindsay fifteen years later, were the first two African-American District Court Judges to serve the District of Massachusetts. Both judges served with honor and distinction until their eventual replacement. Judge Casper currently holds the seat previously occupied by Judge Reginald Lindsay after being nominated by President Barack Obama in April 2010. Judge Casper is also notable for presiding over the criminal trial of famous Boston mobster and long time FBI's Most Wanted, James “Whitey” Bulger.
United States v. Ramsey, 271 U.S. 467 (1926), was a U.S. Supreme Court case in which the Court held that the government had the authority to prosecute crimes against Native Americans (Indians) on reservation land that was still designated Indian Country by federal law. The Osage Indian Tribe held mineral rights that were worth millions of dollars. A white rancher, William K. Hale, devised a plot to kill tribal members to allow his nephew, who was married to a tribal member, to inherit the mineral rights. The tribe requested the assistance of the federal government, which sent Bureau of Investigation agents to solve the murders. Hale and several others were arrested and tried for the murders, but they claimed that the federal government did not have jurisdiction. The district court quashed the indictments, but on appeal, the Supreme Court reversed, holding that the Osage lands were Indian Country and that the federal government therefore had jurisdiction. This put an end to the Osage Indian murders.
United States v. Antelope, 430 U.S. 641 (1977), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that American Indians convicted on reservation land were not deprived of the equal protection of the laws; (a) the federal criminal statutes are not based on impermissible racial classifications but on political membership in an Indian tribe or nation; and (b) the challenged statutes do not violate equal protection. Indians or non-Indians can be charged with first-degree murder committed in a federal enclave.
