A Loophole for Lawlessness
The Zone of Death is a 50-square-mile area on the eastern edge of Idaho that sits within Yellowstone National Park. Because of a reported loophole in the Constitution, a person may be able to theoretically avoid conviction for any major crime, including murder.
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park was inhabited by Native Americans for centuries and remained mostly unexplored until around 1860. It became the first national park in the United States in March of 1872 when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law.
Yellowstone is known for its wildlife and numerous geothermal features, including the Old Faithful geyser, it is located mainly in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extends into Montana and Idaho.
Law Professor Makes Things Interesting
Yellowstone National Park encompasses 3,472 square miles. It’s larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Within those nearly 3,500 square miles, a law professor at Michigan State University found 50 that were quite interesting.
Brian C. Kalt began teaching at the MSU College of Law in July of 2000. His research focuses on structural constitutional law, the presidency, and juries. He’s written for numerous newspapers and even became entangled in the 2nd impeachment trial for Donald Trump. Trump’s former attorneys filed a brief that made multiple references to a 2001 article on impeachment written by Kalt, and completely misinterpreted it’s true meaning.
The Constitutional Loophole
In 2005, while working on a planned essay about technicalities within the Sixth Amendment, he stumbled upon a bigger story. The Sixth Amendment grants citizens the right to a jury composed of impartial members drawn from the local community and Kalt wondered about a hypothetical place where there were not enough eligible citizens to form a jury. If that was the case, he theorized, then there could be no trial and no punishment for major crimes.
In his research, he stumbled upon just such a place within the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park. Kalt immediately shifted his focus and began writing an essay entitled, “The Perfect Crime.” His hopes were to persuade the government into fixing the loophole immediately. The essay was published in The Georgetown Law Journal.
While he exposed the loophole to everyone including criminals, he’d hoped that the government would fix it before anyone could take advantage of it.
Dissecting the Loophole
According to Wikipedia, within the U.S. Constitution’s Vicinage Clause, “states have no jurisdiction in Yellowstone, all of Yellowstone is under the geographic jurisdiction of the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming. The Vicinage Clause mandates that in federal criminal trials, jurors must be residents of both the “State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law.” Because no people live in the strip of land that lies in both the state of Idaho and the Wyoming federal judicial district, no one would be eligible to serve on a jury for a crime which occurred in the area in question, which is consequently sometimes called the Zone of Death.“
Kalt has repeatedly called for the U.S. Congress to assign the Idaho portion of Yellowstone to the District of Idaho throughout the years since his essay. No action has been taken.
Spreading the Word
C.J. Box is a 65-year-old author who has written more than thirty novels. His claim to fame comes in the form of the Joe Pickett series which makes up two thirds of Box’s work. Joe Pickett, in books and now on television, is a Wyoming game warden that has, “taken on environmental terrorists, rogue federal land managers, animal mutilators, crazed cowboy hitmen, corrupt bureaucrats, homicidal animal rights advocates, and violent dysfunctional families.”
In 2007, Box wrote a Pickett novel called “Free Fire” that featured Brian Kalt’s Zone of Death. The author’s hopes were that it would increase governmental awareness. It worked… sort of. After reading the novel, Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi became aware of the issue but was unable to convince Congress to discuss it.
A Poacher Within the Zone of Death
As of this writing, there have been no known crimes against people within the Zone of Death but in December of 2005, a poacher named Michael Belderrain would put the loophole to the test. Belderrain illegally shot an elk in the Montana section of Yellowstone and then dragged the elk’s head into Yellowstone National Park property. It was ruled that Belderrain could be tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, despite the Sixth Amendment problem.
Kalt’s paper “The Perfect Crime” was cited by the defendant explaining why he believed it was illegal to have his trial with a jury from a state other than where the crime was committed. His argument was dismissed and Belderrain took a plea deal.
Population Zero
Population Zero is a 2016 found footage, “Mockumentary” crime thriller film directed by Adam Levins and Julian T. Pinder. It also stars Pinder as a documentarian within the film.
Levins and Pinder were inspired to make the film after learning of the existence of the Zone of Death and took inspiration from Kalt’s essay and Box’s novel, “Free Fire.”
The Film’s Synopsis: “The film examines the history of Dwayne Nelson, a suspected murderer. In 2009, Nelson confessed to shooting three men to death in Yellowstone National Park and despite his confession being accurately detailed, he was not convicted of the crimes because the crime occurred in an uninhabited area and as such, there is no chance of finding a jury to hear the trial. Years later Julian T. Pinder examines the crimes and the legal loophole that allowed Nelson to walk free. As the film progresses Pinder begins to receive strange and frightening items, evidence of Nelson’s crime.”
Trailer for Population Zero
The Zone of Death Loophole Remains Open
Is a murder bound to happen within the Zone of Death or is its location too remote for anyone to bother caring? Whatever the case, the United States Government seems unconcerned and despite numerous panels, the loophole remains open.