Talton V. Mayes - Background

Background

Talton v. Mayes was brought before the United States Supreme Court in 1896 by Bob Talton, a Cherokee Indian convicted of the murder of a fellow Cherokee. He was sentenced to death by hanging after a trial that took place between May and December 1892. The appellant appealed the decision on the basis that the court had violated his rights by being in contradiction to the law. The US Constitution and, by the end of his trial, the Cherokee laws, demanded more than the 5 Grand Jury members furnished by the Cherokee Courts.

According to Justice White in the majority opinion of the Supreme Court, "Prior to May 1892, a law enacted by the legislature of the Cherokee Nation made it the duty of the judges of the circuit and district courts of the Nation, 14 days before the commencement of the first regular term of said courts, to furnish to the sheriff a list of the names of 5 persons, who should be summoned by the sheriff to act as grand jurors for that district during the year. The first regular term of the courts named commenced on the second Monday in May.

On November 28, 1892, a law was enacted providing for the summoning and impaneling of a grand jury of 13, the names of the persons to compose such jury to be furnished to the sheriff, as under the previous law, 14 days before the commencement of the regular term of the circuit and district courts. There was no express repeal of the provisions of the prior law. Under the terms of the act of November 28, 1892, a grand jury could not have been impaneled before the term beginning on the second Monday of May 1893. The indictment in question was returned in December 1892, by a grand jury consisting of five persons, which grand jury had been impaneled under the prior law, to serve during the year 1892." The appellant argued that the decision should be thrown out because it violated either the Fifth or the Fourteenth amendment.

The central focus of the case was on the relationship between the Cherokee Nation and the United States, and if the local government of the Cherokee Nation was dependent in any way upon the Constitution and its amendments. The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution states that "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury..." Because the grand jury consisted of fewer members than were by law required in the United States, Talton argues that it was not an actual "Grand Jury" as would be needed to fulfill the requirements for the Fifth Amendment.

The part of the Fourteenth Amendment that was of consequence in Talton v. Mayes is the very first part. The first section of the amendment states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Talton attempted to argue that he should have been subject to the federal law since he was born and raised in the United States, but this defense was not accepted by the Supreme Court because of the unique status of Indian tribes. Being "domestic dependent nations," they do not qualify as a state or a part of the federal government, and do not derive any of their local governmental powers from the Constitution and are not necessarily bound by its rules. Talton v. Mayes took place during an era known as the Assimilation Era, which lasted from the 1890s to the 1940s.

It should also be noted that most Native Americans were not considered citizens of the United States until Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924.