Oklahoma man at the center of a tribal sovereignty ruling reaches plea agreement with prosecutors

By KEN MILLER
Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Court documents show that the Oklahoma man at the center of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tribal sovereignty has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. The documents filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Muskogee show that 75-year-old Jimcy McGirt pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual abuse in Indian Country in exchange for a 30-year prison sentence with credit for the more than 26 years he’s already served on a initial conviction in state court. The deal is pending approval of a federal judge. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 reversed the state child molestation convictions and life without parole sentence of McGirt and found that much of eastern Oklahoma remains tribal reservations.