Question: Why is a 50-square-mile parcel of land in Idaho known as the “Zone of Death”?
Answer: The so-called “Zone of Death” is a stretch of Yellowstone National Park that spills over Idaho’s border, where due to a jurisdictional loophole, legal scholars say you can get away with murder. The Sixth Amendment dictates that a jury must be comprised of people from the state and federal district where the crime was committed. Because this portion of Yellowstone is in Idaho and the park itself lies within the jurisdiction of Wyoming, it would be a legally impossible jury to form, because this uninhabited part of the park is the only place that would fit that criteria. And since Yellowstone is federal land, the individual states involved have no legal jurisdiction to amend the issue.
