Loophole Land, USA
Where crimes can’t be prosecuted
For more, get my book “Lost States”
According to a law professor from Michigan, there is small section if Idaho where major crimes can not be prosecuted—thanks to a giant blunder by Congress.
The problem begins with the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone is mostly in Wyoming, but a sliver of the park extends into Idaho and Montana. When Congress created the U.S. District Court of Wyoming it included all of Yellowstone National Park. Big mistake.
So let’s say you commit a murder in the portion of Idaho that’s in the Park (The red “Loophole Land” on the map). You’d be arrested and bound over for trial in the US District court in Cheyenne, Wyoming. But Article III of the Constitution states that the trial must be held in the state where the crime was committed—in this case Idaho. So you are sent to Idaho for trial. No problem there. But the Sixth
Amendment also says that the jury must be drawn from the state and District where the crime was committed. The state is Idaho, but the District is the Wyoming District (which includes the sliver of Idaho that’s in the park). So the jury would have to be drawn from residents who live in the portion of Idaho that lies in the park.
And that’s where it gets interesting: nobody lives in that patch of Idaho. Nobody. No jury pool means no trial, means you go free.
This curious loophole was discovered by Prof. Brian C. Kalt, a respected legal scholar from Michigan State University. Georgetown Law Journal published his findings, so this is legit.
Don’t set foot in this strange sliver of America
Do the same rules apply in the Montana portion of Yellowstone? Yes, but the outcome might be different. Remember, the reason criminals would go free in Loophole Land is because a jury could not be formed from residents of the required location (the Idaho portion of the park) because no one lives there. But the Montana portion of the park does have residents—about 40 of them. A sharp lawyer could argue that 40 people isn’t enough of a pool from which to draw a jury, but a judge could reasonably disagree.
But if your heart is set on committing the perfect crime in Montana, you do have one other option—get your buddies to do the same thing. While 40 residents might be enough for one jury, it wouldn’t be enough for 3 or 4 simultaneous trials. So if you and your friends commit multiple crimes—and draw straws—only the loser would likely face a trial. Because by the time the 3rd or
4th trial could be scheduled—too much time would have passed for the “speedy” trial required by law.
Of course, committing crimes is bad. Don’t do it. But if you’re a screenwriter, this is great stuff. Maybe Dick Wolf will start a new series Law and Order: Idaho just to take advantage of this legal anomaly.
And if all this wasn’t bizarre enough, Idaho’s “Loophole Land” is just a few steps from another patch of American soil that also fell outside the law. Dubbed “Lost Dakota” it was a few acres of land that—erroneously—were not part of any state for many years and thus, theoretically, outside the reach of law
enforcement. Eventually that situation was fixed when Lost Dakota became a part of Montana. But Loophole Land remains an unsettling, well, loophole. If your nemesis suggests a camping trip near the Idaho/ Wyoming border, don’t go!