Teaching Trial Advocacy Through Realistic Legal Hypotheticals

One of the first questions I like to ask students in my Criminal Trial Advocacy course is whether they know the difference between state crimes and federal crimes. I’ll give them an example to think about: Why is it a state crime to hold up an employee of a 7-Eleven convenience store with a firearm and steal $5,000, but it’s both a state and a federal crime to hold up a teller at a Bank of America, with a demand note but no firearm, and steal just $1,000? How can that be? Why would an unarmed bank robbery be a federal crime, but committing an armed robbery against a convenience store or a restaurant or a Walmart would be strictly a state crime? If you don’t know the answer, you’re in good company. The students are usually baffled, and these are second- and third-year law students who are interested in pursuing criminal law as a profession. Many of them are headed for the public defender’s office or the district attorney’s office. Someone in the class might offer a tentative guess, but most students don’t really understand why some offenses are only state crimes and why some are both state and federal crimes. The answer is that bank robbery is a federal crime because the deposits are federally insured by the FDIC. The other answer is that bank robbery is a federal crime because it’s codified as such in Title 18, Section 2113 of the United States Code, which is the penal code for the federal government. It’s important to know that the government can’t prosecute someone for a crime unless the crime and the elements of that crime are very clearly laid out in a statute. This is to make sure that citizens are on notice of what constitutes a crime, or not. This is true whether we’re talking about prosecutions by a state or by the U.S. government. Most of the crimes we’re familiar with and hear about every day in the news or on podcasts, like murder and rape and robbery, are state crimes, not federal crimes. Generally, federal crimes are those crimes that the federal government has an interest in, as well as the authority and jurisdiction to criminalize. There has got to be a federal interest involved. Wire fraud is a federal crime because telephone calls involve wires that are part of interstate commerce via telecommunications or the internet. Mail fraud is a federal crime because it involves the U.S. mail. Drug crimes are federal because the drug trade affects U.S. interests and involves interstate commerce, although federal authorities will generally only charge drug crimes when they’re of a more serious nature, such as manufacturing or selling large quantities of narcotics or transporting them across state lines. Murder is a federal crime, per 18 U.S.C. Section 1111, in certain limited circumstances, like when it’s the murder of a federal judge or it’s committed on federal property or by a federal prisoner. Murder is also a federal crime if it’s perpetrated during the commission of other delineated crimes, such as bank robbery or a drug offense. When I was a federal prosecutor, I handled many cases that involved federal firearms crimes, including charges against defendants for being a felon in possession of a firearm, or for the use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence. Federal firearms offenses often involve very serious sentencing enhancements on top of the sentences for the underlying crimes. There are various implications that arise from whether a crime is investigated and charged as a state or federal crime. One is that the penalties in federal court are often much stiffer than those in state court. Another is that a federal agency like the FBI or DEA or ATF will generally investigate federal crimes and then present the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for prosecution, as opposed to state cases that involve the local police and the local district attorney’s office. If a federal case is indicted, the trial will take place in federal court, and if convicted, the defendant will serve his or her sentence in federal prison rather than state prison. Please let me know if you have any questions about this issue or any other related topics. I really enjoy teaching and educating people about the U.S. legal system, so if any of you have any questions relating to criminal law or law enforcement, please send me a message and ask aw ay!