Summary of I visited the Yellowstone Zone of Death

00:00:00 - 00:05:00

The reporter in this video visits the Yellowstone Zone of Death, a section of the park that is off-limits to the public. The reporter talks to a professor who says that the US attorney's office in Wyoming is not going to just roll over if someone commits a crime in the zone, and that people are sometimes let go on technicalities from time to time. Congress has been on notice for 18 years now, but has not done anything to fix the problem.

• 00:00:00 In the Zone of Death, located in the US Yellowstone National Park, a 50-square-mile area where only the federal government can prosecute crimes, a law professor discovered a legal loophole that allows defendants to get away with murder. The Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees a trial by jury, but in the Zone of Death, only residents of Idaho and Wyoming, the district for which the crime was committed, can serve on a jury. Because of this, most prosecutions in the Zone of Death fail because the defendant cannot get a change of venue. There is also the possibility of being prosecuted elsewhere in the US for crimes committed in the Zone of Death. The legal histories of almost every country are littered with examples of people finding a way to bend the rules. Congress could fix the Zone of Death by passing a statute that makes Wyoming the only district in the US.
• 00:05:00 This video follows a reporter as he visits the Yellowstone Zone of Death, a section of the park that is off-limits to the public. The reporter talks to a professor who says that the US attorney's office in Wyoming is not going to just roll over if someone commits a crime in the zone, and that people are sometimes let go on technicalities from time to time. Congress has been on notice for 18 years now, but has not done anything to fix the problem.