State v. Simpson

LANSING, Judge.

Ronald Simpson, Jeremiah Simpson, and Jeffrey Jackson appeal from their judgments of conviction for two counts each of possession of unlawfully taken elk. The defendants argue that the magistrate and district courts misconstrued the Nez Perce Treaty of 1855 in concluding that Jackson was not acting within his rights as a member of the Nez Perce Tribe when he shot the elk. They also argue that the magistrate erred by refusing to instruct the jury on mistake of fact as a defense based on the defendants’ belief that the elk were shot on public land where tribal hunting rights…