The Zone of Death is the name given to 50 square miles in Idaho, in Yellowstone National Park, where as a result of a purported loophole in the Constitution of the United States, a criminal could theoretically get away with any crime, including murder.
The Loophole: The 6th Amendment decrees that juries in federal criminal cases must be made up of citizens who are from both the district and state where the crime was committed. Because of this, charges for a crime alleged to have been committed in the area of the park in Idaho would have to be tried before a jury consisting entirely of residents of that area, and the trial would also have to take place in that area. As the Idaho portion of the park has no courthouses and is uninhabited, no such jury could be assembled. Thus the defendant would be unable to have a fair trial, and could not receive legal punishment for any alleged crimes.
The Discovery: Brian Kalt, Michigan State University Law Professor, wrote an essay on the 6th Amendment, pointing out the 6th Amendment entitles criminal defendants to a fair and quick trial. Kalt wondered about a hypothetical place where there were not enough eligible citizens to form a jury and theorized that there could be no trial and therefore no punishment for major crimes in that area. He later realized that there was such a place: the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park. Horrified by his realization, Kalt shifted his focus to writing an essay about the area to persuade the government to fix the loophole. The essay, which is called "The Perfect Crime," was published in 2005 in The Georgetown Law Journal. Kalt feared that criminals might read the essay and commit a crime in the Zone before the loophole was fixed.
General Rules about Yellowstone and the area: The United States District Court for the District of Wyoming is currently the only United States district court to have jurisdiction over parts of multiple states. This is due to the fact that its jurisdiction includes all of Yellowstone National Park, which extends slightly beyond Wyoming's boundaries into Idaho and Montana. The federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over Yellowstone National park, so crimes committed in the park cannot be prosecuted under any of the states' laws. Trials in the district court are normally held at the federal courthouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
No known felonies have been committed in the Zone of Death since Kalt's discovery. However, a poacher named Michael Belderrain illegally shot an elk in the Montana section of Yellowstone. While that section of the park does have enough residents to form a jury, it might be difficult to put together a jury due to travel and the unwillingness of members of the small population there to serve. A federal judge ruled that Belderrain could be tried in the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming, despite the 6th Amendment problem. Belderrain cited Kalt's paper "The Perfect Crime" to explain why he believed it was illegal to have his trial with a jury from a state other than where the crime was committed. The court dismissed this argument. Belderrain took a plea deal conditioned on him not appealing the Zone of Death issue to the 10th Circuit, and the issue was left unresolved.
Catch and Release Program: Murderer confesses, but is basically called a liar and released.
September 27, 1986:
David Long was arrested for Driving While Intoxicated in Leon County, Texas, driving a vehicle owned by Donna Sue Jester. He was headed north, in a southbound lane, about 100 miles south of Lancaster on I-45. David had run several cars off the road, and then once pulled over, banged his head on the police car until he was bleeding. The officer stated, “David was ranting and raving about Jesus or God." David Long’s clothes were covered with blood when he was arrested. During his incarceration in the Leon County jail, David admitted that he had killed 3 women in Lancaster. No bodies had been discovered at this point. David stated that he was tired of the women bickering. David said, "I've got something in my head that clicks sometimes. It just goes off." The jailer reported the confession, but was told to forget about the claims and David was released on September 29. David used his murder victim’s car for collateral to post his bail. Police in Lancaster discovered the murdered women's bodies the same day Long was released from jail. I found the following entry interesting: “Long became a suspect when officers in Lancaster found a diary entry by Donna Sue Jester that described how she met him and allowed him to move in with her.” You would think he might have become a suspect when he admitted killing them. October 4, 1986: David Long was apprehended in Austin for public intoxication on October 24. He had hitchhiked, and the driver called police when Long passed out in the vehicle. Little Rock Arkansas, September 19, 1986: After being kicked out of a drug rehabilitation program in Little Rock, Arkansas, David Long was hitchhiking when 37-year-old Donna Sue Jester gave him a ride and allowed him to stay at her home in Lancaster, Texas. Donna lived with her 64-year-old blind adoptive mother, Dalpha Lorene Jester, and with 20-year-old Laura Lee Owens. David Long and Laura Owens began a romantic relationship. Like Long, Owens was a transient who had been allowed to stay in the Jester home. Lancaster, Texas, September 27, 1986: The three women were killed with a steak knife and a hatchet on September 27, but their bodies were not discovered for two days. Based on crime scene evidence, police officers believed that Long killed Donna Sue and Dalpha Jester first. They said that Laura Owens came home after the other two women had been killed. She is thought to have seen the dead women and was killed while trying to leave the home. Long left the house in the station wagon belonging to Donna Sue Jester.
David Martin Long’s last statement:
Ah, just ah sorry ya'll. I think of tried everything I could to get in touch with ya'll to express how sorry I am. I, I never was right after that incident happened. I sent a letter to somebody, you know a letter outlining what I feel about everything. But anyway I just wanted, right after that apologize to you. I'm real sorry for it. I was raised by the California Youth Authority, I can't really pin point where it started, what happened but really believe that's just the bottom line, what happened to me was in California. I was in their reformatory schools and penitentiary, but ah they create monsters in there. That's it, I have nothing else to say. Thanks for coming Jack.
David Martin Long’s mother died when he was 10 years old. David’s siblings indicated this loss significantly impacted David. David’s father was an alcoholic, who frequently left the kids alone to fend for themselves. One night, he brought a woman home from the bar and sex with her in front of the children. By the age of 12, David was in reform school and was abusing alcohol and drugs (marijuana, LSD, heroin and methamphetamine). After Dave was incarcerated he admitted that the triple homicide wasn’t his 1st murder.
San Bernadino, California 1978:
"In approximately 1978 I had been at a party to celebrate a wedding in San Bernadino, California. I was run off from this party for smoking marijuana. I was drunk. I decided to go to a bar. I went in a bar called Clyde's on the southeast corner of Waterman Ave. and I 10. I left the bar very intoxicated and jumped a median with my car which resulted in two tires being blown out. I went ahead and went to the Union 76 gas station on the northwest corner of Waterman and I 10. I had the flats repaired. I was already feeling angry about what happened at the party and the gas station attendant overcharged me for the tire repair. I went to the car and took out a tire iron from the back and followed the attendant into his parts room where I proceeded to beat him all over the head with the tire iron. I then took a broom and stuffed the handle of it down his throat to be sure he was dead…”
“A car pulled up to get gas. I acted as the attendant and pumped the gas. The customer produced a credit card but I did not know how to work the machine so I told him we did not take credit cards after 10 o'clock and to come back tomorrow and pay. He left then I left. The only thing I took from the attendant was his key chain to make change for the customer. After I left, I threw the key chain in a field. I killed him because I was pissed about him over charging me." Investigators found David’s confession consistent with the report of the unsolved 1978 murder, which included a statement from the man who attempted to use the credit card. The triple homicide wasn’t his 2nd murder.
Bay City, Texas, 1983:
"On 12/20/83 at about 9:00 p.m., I went over to see Bob Rogers at his trailer because he had not been to work earlier that day. He had sent me out earlier in the day when I went by to buy him a bottle of whiskey. I had noticed that he had several hundred dollars in his billfold, I, at the time, had been shooting heroin on a regular basis along with Preludin. Besides that, I had a grudge against him. He had fired me and made a small matter a big matter when I had driven a company vehicle to a girlfriend's house. Though he had rehired me, I still held a grudge against him. When I got to his trailer that night he passed out while sitting in a chair in the living room. I had not been there more than five minutes. Seeing him sitting there, I snapped and first I went outside and tried to light the underside of the trailer on fire with no success. I then went into the trailer and proceeded to pour whiskey around where he was sitting. I then lit the drapes on fire with a Bic lighter. Then I took the money, a few hundred dollars, out of his billfold. I left a twenty dollar bill in the billfold to make it not look like a robbery. The fire at the time was beginning to engulf the drapes and I went to drug connections house and shot a hundred dollars worth of Heroin. I killed him because I hated the son of a bitch."
The confession was also corroborated by several witnesses. An undercover officer saw David walk into the drug house, which was under surveillance, after the murder. A neighbor identified David as the man she saw running from the trailer have it was set on fire. December 6, 1999:
David had requested the death penalty stating that he thought he would kill again if not put to death. Facing the death penalty in 3 days, David Martin Long took an overdose of medication in his cell in an effort to kill himself. However, he was revived and considered competent to still be executed on his execution date.
December 9, 1999:
David Martin Long was executed by lethal injection in Texas. He was the 32nd person executed in Texas in 1999.
Thanks for listening, Frank Thank you for all of the kind notes. Still working hard on the comeback… Found myself listening to a couple different genres of music, as indicated below.
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AuthorFrank F. Weber is a forensic psychologist specializing in homicide and sexual and physical assault cases. He uses his unique understanding of how predator’s think, knowledge of victim trauma, actual court cases, and passion for writing true crime thrillers. His Award Winning books include "Murder Book" (2017) "The I-94 Murders" (2018) "Last Call" (2019) and "Lying Close" (September 2020). Archives
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