In the U.S., are there an federal laws against murder? If so, can’t the federal government bring charges of murder agaist a suspect and use the death penalty if the state where the murder was commited doesn’t have the death penalty?
Plain old murder is not a federal crime, as the Constitution doesn’t give the federal government to legislate in that area.
However, murdering a federal law enforcement officer, commiting murder in a federal park or on federal land, or in the military, murdering a federal judge, Congressman, cabinet secretary, the President or VP, etc. are all federal crimes and subject to capital punishment.
Oh, and as a recent example, Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the federal crime of murdering eight federal law enforcement officers who were in the Murrah Federal Building. Because he was executed for that crime, he was never tried for the murders of the other 160 people or so.
Under United States law, you may only be charged with a crime if there is a specific penal law statute defining the crime. In federal law, most types of “ordinary” crimes are only defined as crimes under the United States Code if there is some “federal” element.
The basic federal murder law is 18 USC 1111. However, this section only applies in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, essentially federal property, federal waters, certain vessels and aircraft, and a few other situations. Under this section, the death penalty is available for first degree murder, defined as:
There are a bunch of other murder statutes that provide that specified types of killings will be treated as a federal murder in 18 USC 1111. These include Congress members, cabinet members or Supreme Court Justices, the President or Presidential staff, federal officers and employees, murder by a federal prisoner, and a number of other situations.
So, in an ordinary murder not involving a specified federal interest, there can’t be a federal prosecution, regardless of the availability of the death penalty. If, however, there were a federal interest in a murder committed within a state (for example, if a federal employee were killed or the killing were on federal land), it could be prosecuted as either a state or a federal crime (or perhaps both).
The other responses note that murder is not a federal crime, and thus the federal government can not prosecute someone for murder.
The FBI works on crimes of interest to the federal government, so it is not automatically called in on murder investigations. It does, however, support state and local law enforcement. The FBI also gets involved in bank robberies, I think based on the pretext that banks work within the Federal Reserve system which is a federal agency. They also get involved in kidnapping, which by statute is a federal offense. That stems from the famous Lindbergh baby kidnapping.
In the past, several federal agencies had somewhat overlapping interests in law enforcement. The US Treasury’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) enforced federal laws governing these products (mostly tax laws), while another Treasury department, the Secret Service, worked on counterfeiting. The DEA enforced federal drug laws. The FBI investigated federal crimes, assisted local law enforcement, and worked on counterespionage. Even the Dept. of the Interior has law enforcement; some US National Park rangers are peace officers. The INS got in there as well.
Does anyone know if all of these have been brought under the DHS?
Banks are insured through FDIC (“Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation”), an agency of the Federal Government. If a bank is robbed, the FDIC insurance covers the loss, which means a bank robber stole from the feds, which allows the FBI jurisdiction.
The Secret Service and the INS (now the ICE) are part of the DHS. ATF is part of of the DOJ, as are the FBI amd DEA. National Park Service is, of course, part of Interior still.
Minnesota has not had the death penalty for nearly a hundred years now, and North Dakota has not had it for over 75 years.
But recently, a previously convicted sex offendor killed a 22-year-old student. He was convicted, and sentenced to death. Apparently since she was accosted in North Dakota, and her body was found across the border in Minnesota, that made this a Federal crime, and so he could be sentenced to death, even though both states involved have abolished the death penalty.
Search on Dru Sjodin or Alfonso Rodriguez for more details.
What about murder that stems from committing a Federal offense, like smuggling? Can the murder be tacked onto your trial in Federal court, or does that have to be tried separately by the state with jurisdiction?
There is a federal death penalty for interstate kidnapping resulting in death, which would appear to be the crime charged in the Dru Sjodin case.
Why? Why that but not plain old murder?
The Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate in the area of interstate trade and commerce, which is the aegis under which most interstate criminal statutes are written.
A plain old murder, taking place in one state without involving anything of federal jurisdiction, must be prosecuted at the state level. No federal criminal statute exists to make that a federal crime, and if it did, an appellate court would find the law unconstitutional.
Weren’t some of the killers of Civil Rights Movement members in the Sixties tried on Federal charges, under the rationale that they’d violated the Federal civil rights of the victims (and, incidentally, because it was thought that state juries would never convict good ol’ boys from their own states)?
Yes. The most famous case is probably the murder of Viola Liuzzo in Alabama. The three suspects were acquitted of murder charges in the Alabama state court. Federal prosecutors then brought charges against them for violating Liuzzo’s civil rights, and they were found guilty in federal court. Unfortunately, the maximum sentence for violating someone’s civil rights is ten years in federal prison, which they all got.
Unlike his alleged accomplice, Terry Nichols, who was convicted of eights counts of manslaughter in Federal Court and later convicted of 161 counts of murder by the state of Oklahoma. This is essentially the opposite of what the OP was suggesting – where the prosceuters were seeking the death penalty in state court after a lesser punishment (life imprisonment) was handed down in the Federal Court. In Nichols’ case, that effort was unsuccesful, as the jury in the state’s trial also choose a sentence of life in prison over the death penalty.
Since he’s been convicted, it’s no longer “alleged” that he was the accomplice. 