Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter says he wants the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case of a Native American man whose murder conviction in state court was overturned after it was determined he should have been tried in federal court.
Hunter issued a statement on Thursday after the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined Hunter's request for a rehearing in the case of Patrick Dwayne Murphy.
Hunter says he will ask the 10th Circuit to stay the effectiveness of its ruling pending action by the Supreme Court.
Murphy was sentenced to death in state court for the killing of a man in 1999. A federal appeals court determined Murphy should have been tried in federal court because he was Native American and the death occurred in "Indian country."