When Does A Murder Case Become Federal? Andrew Russek of Combs Waterkotte recounts a personal tale explaining how a murder case can become federal.
Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: Now, let’s talk about federal murder and homicide. So, when does a case– or, a murder case– become federal?
Andrew Russek: So again, you need that jurisdictional connection, technically. Now that’s relatively easy for them to do, so it’s really, when does the federal government have an interest in taking a federal case?
Now I was, again, a violent crime prosecutor in the city. We would get murders that the federal government would have interest in for a variety of reasons. Sometimes there’s other things going on, like it was a murder as part of a wider drug conspiracy. Sometimes the individual has a murder from another state. They commit one here, or they flee to another state. The feds will get interested in that, and they can create their jurisdiction for a variety of different reasons.
A lot of times, pay for homicide– so kill for hire– the federal government will take interest in those. Or, St. Louis and Southern District of Illinois, the river, a lot of things will happen to cross over.
So I prosecuted a case temporarily in the city where it’s a gunfight that starts in Illinois, ends in Missouri with a death, and the federal government came and picked that up.
Scott Michael Dunn: Oh, wow.
Andrew Russek: Because, for all we really knew, the death happened while they were crossing the bridge. So it’s those kinds of situations where the federal government will come in.
If you’re facing federal charges and need an expert criminal defense lawyer, contact Combs Waterkotte today at (314) 900-HELP or reach out online for a free, confidential case review. We will fight for your rights and freedom.
