State and Federal crime - who has priority?

Factual Questions
1

Was reading this thread and it made me wonder. In the case of a particular offense in the USA being both a federal and a state crime (from what is posted elsewhere I guess murdering a federal employee might fit), do the feds always go first in terms of who gets to haul the culprit into court first? Is there negotiation behind the scenes while the culprit awaits trial?

We don’t have that issue up here since our Criminal Code is federal.

2

Relevant article.

3

Thanks!

4

This is going to come up in Colorado and in Washington State, which have decriminalized (I think, I haven’t bothered to look it up) the distribution of cannabis. This, of course, still violates Federal law, though I think the Justice Department has decided not to make it a priority (Lynch might be less blase, and if a Republican is elected in 2016 his AG might be still less so)

5

I don’t have any experience of criminal state-federal cases, but I think most often the feds and the state(s) would talk it over and negotiate.

The feds tend to be able to throw their weight around a bit (or a lot) more than the state(s), and the entity with the future defendant in custody also has a big advantage. But other things could come into play too (election-year politics, whoever did the most work to catch the perp arguing that they should get to prosecute him, trading for other favors, etc)

6

Wouldn’t it also depend on the particular laws that were broken, and the associated penalties, and how easy/hard it might be to convict someone for them and/or how long they’ll be locked up for the crimes?

I mean, it might be easier to make a case to lock up someone for 5 years on a lesser state charge, than to try and lock them up for 15 on a Federal charge.

7

Not exactly OP relevant, since it is not a crime in one jurisdiction. But yes, even if the state chooses to legalize something ( or has no law against it) federal law can still apply, and prosecutions are IIRC at the discretion of the prosecutor’s office.

I recall vaguely reading about several cases (including the linked Washington Sniper case) where the general thought was to let the defendants stand trial first with the jurisdiction that has the death penalty or harshest sentences.

8

That is the opposite of what the OP is talking about.