Coming soon to a CSI near you...

[andrewducker]

"Go on a crime spree in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park. You can't be convicted because:

1. You'll be on Federal property, meaning the crime will be tried in Federal court.
2. By law, all of Yellowstone, including the Idaho portion, is governed by the US District Court for Wyoming.
3. The Sixth Amendment requires the jury for any Federal case to be drawn from the same "state and district" where the crime is committed.
4. No one lives in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, therefore, no one lives in that "state and district."
5. Therefore, no jury, and therefore, no conviction."

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Comments

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

So presumably the police have to just shoot you on the spot, then? :)

[kynn.livejournal.com]

they couldn't be tried if they did...

[andrewducker]

Good point!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

(That is what I meant.)

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

If noone lives there, there's almost certainly very little property there either. Which rather sharply curtails the possibilities for a crime spree.

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

It does appear to make it the perfect place for drug-trading though. Or setting up an illegal casino.

Although I do wonder - does it have any roads?

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

Drug trading might work, except you'd still be in possession of the contraband on your way in/out, and would almost certainly have enough evidence on you to do you for possession with intent to supply either before or after, depending on whether you'd bought or sold (though I don't know US law on this).

An illegal casino might be fun, until the park authorities/Feds came by and bulldozed it. They might have trouble securing a criminal conviction on you, but you'd still be down the cost of building the place.

I'd guess it has at least one road passing through, on the grounds that Idaho is one of the states you fly to if you want to go to the park, so there must be a road from Idaho to the park. I could be wrong, of course - the road route might cross a state line before you get in to the park itself.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Until the prosecution files a motion for change of venue due to a lack of suitable nonbiased jurors, and it is granted because the Judge is not an idiot and does not like people playing Mr Clever Dick.