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Federal Crimes
Federal Crimes | The Federal Criminal System |
The federal rules of evidence and procedure differ substantially from
Arizona law and procedure. Accordingly, attorneys well versed in
Arizona law may be unable to competently represent a defendant in
Federal court.Unlike the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, which primarily uses preliminary hearings, the United States Attorney's Office uses the grand jury system to indict individuals with criminal charges. Further, in the typical United States Attorney's office, the assigned prosecutor for prosecuting federal criminal charges has significantly more time and resources to direct at any given prosecution than a state prosecutor. Federal prosecutors also typically have better academic credentials than state prosecutors, and many have a great deal of latitude in selecting the cases they wish to prosecute through the federal courts. Federal prosecutors also deal with interstate crimes, which are more legally and factually complex than a state prosecutions. Last, sometimes federal prosecutors and state prosecutors can prosecute the exact same crime, which is called concurrent jurisdiction. In these instances, the federal prosecutor has the right of first refusal; that is, the federal prosecutor can prosecute the case if he wants to, but he can also turn the case over to state prosecutors as well. The federal prosecutor will usually keep the case if it is a very good case to prosecute. Concurrent jurisdiction most commonly comes up in drug cases. As a result of the federal prosecutors extra resources and right to cherry pick cases, federal criminal defense is more difficult to defend than state prosecutions and the cost of federal defense is often very high. |
