 Hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PBI3, MAPI, exhibits long minority carrier lifetimes and diffusion lengths. We show that slow recombination originates from a spin-split indirect gap. Large internal electric fields act on spin orbit-coupled band extrema, shifting band edges to unequivalent wave vectors. This article was authored by Puiya Azharhush, Scott McKetchney, Jarvis M. Frost, and others.