Federal judge sets new trial for Jimcy McGirt
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A federal judge has scheduled a new trial in the case against Jimcy McGirt—the man at the center of the debate on criminal prosecution of Native Americans.
McGirt, 74, is a member of the Seminole Nation and was originally tried and convicted in 1997 in Wagoner County District Court for first degree rape by instrumentation, lewd molestation and forcible molestation of a four-year-old.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned McGirt's conviction in 2020 after his attorneys challenged the ruling on the ground that the crime occurred on the Muscogee Nation Reservation, which had never been disestablished by Congress, and his case moved to federal court.
In 2021, McGirt was found guilty of aggravated sexual abuse and given three life sentences, but the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction on a technicality earlier this summer.
The new case is set to start next month on September 11.