George "Corn" Tassel

George "Corn" Tassel, Utsi'dsata, Cherokee language (Cherokee: Tsalagi, Aniyvwiyaʔi), was known for being illegally tried, convicted, and executed for murder on December 24, 1830, by the State of Georgia. His case became the first Cherokee legal document to support Cherokee sovereignty, and by extension Native American sovereignty in general. As a result of this incident, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that the states do not have jurisdiction in Native American territories.

Murder charges In 1830 George Corn Tassel was charged with the murder of another Cherokee man at Talking Rock, within Cherokee territory. Corn Tassel had allegedly waylaid and killed Sanders "Talking Rock" Ford while under the influence of alcohol.

Talking Rock (now Pickens County, Georgia) was within the territory of the Cherokee Nation. It was 50 miles from Hall County, where Tassel was taken to be tried. Since the Cherokee Nation was considered sovereign by U.S. law, Tassel should have been tried in a Cherokee court.

Trial and appeal Tassel was tried on November 22, 1830, in the county seat, Gainesville, Georgia. The courthouse was a log cabin in the center of town. A jury of 12 white men found Tassel guilty of murder. Superior Court Judge Augustin Smith Clayton sentenced Tassel to death, to be hanged by the neck until dead.

Tassel's case was appealed and went before a 'convention of judges" of Georgia superior courts, at that time the de facto Georgia Supreme Court. The judges who denied his appeal included Augustin S. Clayton [who had presided over Tassel's trial], William Law, William H. Crawford, William H. Holt, L.Q.C. Lamar, Charles Daugherty, C.B. Strong, G.E. Thomas, L. Warren, John W. Hooper, and H. Warner.

After encouragement from Governor Gilmer, Judge Clayton refused the Supreme Court's demand for trial records and proceeded to have Corn Tassel executed by hanging on Dec. 24, 1830.