OCCA Withdraws Decision From Publication
Video Transcribed: Defense in Bosse request a stay of the case with the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals pending a Wallace appeal to the United States Supreme Court. I’m McGirt attorney James Wirth. Got a little bit of an update regarding the Bosse case.
The Court of Criminal Appeals has filed and withdrawn its decision from publication. It is noted as vacating its decision in Bosse, which found that subject matter jurisdiction can be attacked at any time, and indeed must be attacked at any time, and can be attacked collaterally.
And instead, I was overruled in Wallace that provided that McGirt does not have retroactive application, even though it is a subject matter jurisdiction issue.
So now back in the Bosse case where the defense was the winner in that case, and it’s up on state’s appeal to the United States Supreme Court, everything is now changed.
And now rather than the state requesting a stay, it is the defense requesting a stay. And again, indeed the defense kind of notes that it was previously granted for the state so it should be now.
It notes, “As the history of this case, demonstrates requests for stays pending Supreme Court litigation of potentially dispositive issues are appropriate requests worthy of being granted.” So they’re using the courts prior to granting or partial granting.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals granted a partial stay to give enough time for the state to request a stay from the United States Supreme Court. Now the defense is using that to suggest that we need a stay now that the circumstances are reversed.
What’s also interesting about the pleading filed there is they actually attached an affidavit from lawyers representing the defendant in Wallace, where they indicate in that affidavit under oath, that they are going to be appealing Wallace to the United States Supreme Court, and have indeed already hired a Washington DC counsel to handle that appeal.
So it is likely that this is not going to be decided in Bosse as we previously thought. It looks like it is now going to be decided in Wallace to the United States Supreme Court. Although things can change just like we thought it was going to be Murphy and ended up being McGirt based on the circumstances.
But that is the way it is going now. That request for stay has been filed, and they’re pending an appeal in the Wallace case. And it’s yet to be seen whether the Oklahoma Court of Criminal appeals will grant that or not. But that is pending at this time.
If you’ve got questions about this, Bosse, McGirt, any of it, how it may apply to your friends or family’s cases or circumstances or your case, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney privately, confidentially about that.
