Death Row Inmate Charged Again For McClain Co. Triple-Murder After Sentence Vacated

Shaun Bosse was convicted of killing a mother and her two kids in McClain County and sentenced to death more than a decade ago. On Tuesday, he was charged with the crimes again in federal court after his state conviction was thrown out due to a change in jurisdictional law. 

“He gets a whole other shot at it,” said Greg Mashburn, the Oklahoma district attorney who helped convict Bosse at the state level in 2012. 

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma reaffirmed tribal boundaries and criminal jurisdictions. The plaintiff in the case was a tribal citizen, convicted of a crime at the state level, who argued he should have been tried at the federal level. The high court agreed. 

The ruling gave way to thousands of previous criminal cases that originated on tribal land. 

Bosse appealed to the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals and said his conviction was not valid because the crimes took place on Chickasaw land, and the victims were Chickasaw. His death sentence was vacated. 

Federal prosecutors filed identical charges on Tuesday. 

“He gets a shot at not getting the death penalty. To complicate things, when you get to federal court, (there are) different rules and different standards,” Mashburn said. “I’m devastated for the family. They’re going to have to relive all this again.” 

Mashburn called the appeals court decision “absurd.” 

“He was in control of the entire situation. He got to pick who he was going to kill (and) where he killed them,” Mashburn said. “He’s going to get the benefit by those decisions that he made. He gets the benefit by who he chose to kill and the rest of us have to stand by and watch him get a whole new bite of the apple.” 

Attorney General Mike Hunter asked the appeals court to reconsider the decision to invalidate Bosse’s conviction because he is not a tribal citizen, which, according to Hunter’s office, would mean there is both state and federal jurisdiction to prosecute. 

Stephen Greetham, senior counsel to the Chickasaw Nation, said the tribe is committed to assisting the prompt prosecution of Bosse and other cases put in question by the McGirt ruling. 

“Our goal was, and is, never to allow Mr. Bosse to be free or to avoid justice for the crimes he did commit. Our goal is to make sure that we do it right,” Greetham said.