DENVER, CO – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of an Oklahoma man who fatally stabbed his roommate after being mocked, ruling that insults and name-calling do not constitute sufficient provocation under federal law.
According to court records, Isaac Newman Sockey, a member of the Choctaw Nation, lived with relatives in Tahlequah when he stabbed and killed Thurdis Tubby in September 2023 following a night of drinking. Witnesses said Sockey’s roommates teased him by calling him “chicken legs” before the altercation turned deadly.
Sockey admitted to the stabbing but argued he acted in the heat of passion, which would have reduced the charge to voluntary manslaughter. The district court instructed jurors that “words alone, no matter how aggravating or insulting, do not negate malice aforethought,” and the jury convicted him of first-degree murder in Indian Country.
The Tenth Circuit rejected Sockey’s appeal, finding the instruction consistent with U.S. Supreme Court precedent dating back to 1896. The panel concluded that verbal taunts or insults alone are not legally sufficient to provoke a reasonable person to kill.
Sockey remains sentenced to life in federal prison.
