Some Idaho lawmakers want Congress to end Yellowstone’s ‘zone of death’
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BOISE — A legal loophole means someone could potentially get away with murder or any other crime in a small section of Yellowstone National Park.
At least that’s the theory. Dubbed the “zone of death,” a 50-square mile section of Yellowstone that trickles into Idaho finds itself at the center of Idaho legislation. A committee of lawmakers now wants Congress to close the potential legal loophole discussed in Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt’s paper “The Perfect Crime,” published in a 2005 Georgetown Law Journal. Read the paper here.
“There is a lot of clickbait online about it that sort of overstates how big the loophole is,” Kalt told EastIdahoNews.com. “But it is a real issue, I believe.”
You may have daydreamed about it: some forgotten constitutional provision, combined with an obscure statute, that together make it possible for people in the know to commit crimes with impunity. Whether you were looking for opportunities to commit crimes or afraid that somebody else was, the possibility of a constitutional “perfect crime” was too compelling to ignore. This Essay represents the fruits of my own daydreams, combined with the fact that lately I have spent my lucid moments mulling over one particular forgotten constitutional provision: the Sixth Amendment’s vicinage requirement.
The courts may or may not agree that my loophole exists, and in any case this Essay is not intended to inspire anyone to go out and commit crimes. Crime is bad, after all. But so is violating the Constitution. If the loophole described in this Essay does exist it should be closed, not ignored.
— Brian Kalt, introduction to “The Perfect Crime”
When Congress passed the Bill of Rights in 1791, Yellowstone National Park and Idaho were not yet on the map. Included in the Bill of Rights, the Sixth Amendment established that a person must be tried by a jury from the state and district where the crime was committed.
As people moved westward, the 3,468 square miles became the world’s first national park in 1872, Yellowstone. Eighteen years later, Idaho gained statehood, boarding nearby Wyoming and overlapping a portion of the national park. While people kept moving into the nearby area, the 50 square miles remained remote.
It still sits at a population of zero.
The federal government has sole jurisdiction for all crimes committed in Yellowstone. But covered in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, it leaves just one problem.
With no one living in the “zone of death,” federal courts would be unable to seat a jury from people living in Idaho and or from within the greater Wyoming court district.
“Anywhere else that is not a problem … but if you commit a crime in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, the state is Idaho, and the district is the District of Wyoming. So the jury would have to be from the … Idaho portion of Yellowstone, but nobody lives there,” Kalt said.
Idaho Rep, Colin Nash, D-Boise, learned of Kalt’s theory while attending law school at Concordia University. Now serving in his first term as a legislator, Nash felt he could do something about the legal loophole. Nash introduced House Joint Memorial 3, asking Congress to stop the potential “perfect crime.”
“Every time another high-profile disappearance happens in that region, I think about it,” Nash told EastIdahoNews.com. “I think it’s appropriate that Idaho maintains jurisdiction over its borders in our federal judicial district. I think it’s something the Legislature can get behind, and I’d like to make our desires known to Congress.”
When EastIdahoNews.com published stories on the disappearance of 16-year-old Tylee Ryan and 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow in 2019 and 2020, people shared theories that someone used the zone of death to get away with murder. The two children were seen in their last days alive in pictures at the park. People floated a similar theory in 2021 when Gabby Petito disappeared while on a road trip near Yellowstone.
While if someone did commit a felony in the zone of death, and they may not face a federal jury, Kalt said they could face crimes elsewhere. For example, if someone planned in Idaho to commit a felony in the 50-square-mile area, the planning of it could be considered a crime. If so, someone could face conspiracy charges outside of the park.
“There is also the prospect of civil liability, so if you commit a crime, they may not be able to prosecute you, but the victim might be able to sue you civilly and they wouldn’t face the same problem with the jury,” Kalt said. “So if something did happen, it’s not a huge loophole, and if something did happen, the court might disagree with me.”
The area is also remote, and not many people visit that part of the park.
“Since I’ve published the article I’m not aware of there being any crimes occurring in the Idaho portion (of Yellowstone),” Kalt said.
Still, Nash felt it important to raise the issue to Congress and received support from the Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee, who sent the legislation to the House floor, with a do-pass recommendation.
The legislation specifically asks Congress to close the loophole by adding the 50 square miles of Yellowstone within Idaho to the United States District Court of Idaho, which would allow courts to pull jurors from other parts of Idaho.
If Congress takes action, Yellowstone’s “perfect crime” will be no more.