How to Get Away with Murder? Say What?

Want to kill someone but don’t want to get into trouble? Just lure your victim to the one and only Yellowstone National Park! 

The best part? It’s all legally acceptable!

Sounds suspicious, right? Trust us, it’s not.

In his 2005 Georgetown Law Journal article, ‘The Perfect Crime’, Michigan State law professor Brian Kalt brought to the spotlight that an area of Yellowstone National Park was devoid of any legislation to prevent people from being charged with a serious crime.

At this point, you’re probably wondering if we’re being serious. Yes, we are being serious and what we are wondering is why are you here? Have you already started planning a heinous crime? You might not want to murder someone as of now, but we know about the music that you want to illegally download. Yeah, please don’t do that.

The 50 square mile patch of lawless land that spills over Idaho’s border, known as ‘The Zone of Death’ is a legal no man’s land. The land is an isolated spot, devoid of any permanent inhabitants and roads. 

According to the Sixth Amendment, a jury must be comprised of people from the state and the federal district where the crime was committed. The Zone of Death, however, is in Idaho, while the park itself lies within the jurisdiction of Wyoming. This means that a jury for a crime committed in the area should consist people who both:

a. Live in Idaho

b. Fall under Wyoming’s federal jurisdiction

This is quite unfortunate depending on who you ask, as absolutely no one lives in the area — it’s federal land. No one’s allowed to live there either. Unless the accused allows the government to trial them in Wyoming, they cannot be legally tried at all. 

Fortunately, no murder has been committed on this spot. It seems like murderers haven’t been doing their research. This just goes on to show the importance of research. If you want to get away with murder, do it right.

Brian Kalt stumbled upon this loophole while researching for an article on the technicalities of the sixth amendment.

Fascinated and horrified by his finding, Kalt redirected his research and published his paper on the Zone of Death.

In it, he explains that he’s always wondered if there was a “forgotten constitutional provision, combined with an obscure statute, that together make it possible for people in the known to commit a crime with impunity.”

Wonder why he’s always wanted to find that out.

Kalt feared that people might try to exploit this loophole and so he alerted the Department of Justice, the US Attorney for Wyoming, and the House and Senate Judiciary Committee of that year before publishing the piece, in hopes that it could be solved before publication.

He received a reply from the US attorney stating that it wasn’t in his power to change the law and another from an intern at the House Judiciary Committee.

Though criminals might despise Kalt for giving up their spot, they can be thankful that the American government just doesn’t care. The article’s release didn’t accomplish anything either and this lawless area continues to exist on in America’s beloved National Park.

“The loophole looms, waiting for a murderer to exploit it. I feel like I’ve done what I can to prevent this; the blood will be on the government’s hands.”

Brian Kalt

We would recommend you to keep track of your coordinates while exploring Yellowstone — especially if you’re travelling with someone.

You never know when you could end up in the ominously named Zone of Death.

We, however, do encourage you to go to Yellowstone for its beautiful wildlife diversity and its geothermal hot springs, not to kill someone.

Murder is awful, please refrain from doing that.

 

Written by Tanya Jain for MTTN

Edited by Chintan Gandhi

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