[samatman]

The Zone of Death isn't quite a classic "HN tries to compile the law" topic, lawyers have tried to have the boundaries rewritten after all.

But what would happen if/when a felony is committed in the Zone of Death is fairly clear. A local judge would rule that "State and district" needs to be interpreted in the intention of the legislature, and can only be "State or district" when those differ, since "neither State nor district" isn't going to lead to a "fair and speedy trial".

But this opens a wedge for appeal on procedural grounds, which any defense lawyer would be duty-bound to take, and the whole thing would end up in front of the Supreme Court. Which is a waste of everyone's time, SCOTUS should be creating meaningful precedent with its limited time, not futzing around with the one spot on the map where the Sixth Amendment is ambiguous.

What wouldn't happen is the perpetrator going scot-free. That's not how it works.

It's a cool name though. Very in keeping with the West in general.

[someguydave]

Yeah it always seemed unlikely that “the law does not apply” conclusion makes sense there when judges regularly “nope” less solid procedural arguments out of their courts.

[bombcar]

The only case that gets close to it was resolved (in part) by the perpetrator taking a plea deal that included the guarantee that they would NOT petition for redress.

[hnbad]

Given how the US legal system works in practice, a plea deal is also the most likely outcome for any other felony. Playing for time isn't really a good idea when that translates to extremely long jail times while waiting for a trial you're not going to win anyway.

[hollywood_court]

This reminds of “Free Fire” by C.J. Box.

[bombcar]

One of the novels written to try to get Congress to fix the technical issue.