Howard Bashman has a link here to a story discussing the federalization of crime. (Thanks to Greg for the pointer.) I wrote an amicus brief in a case called McFarland, in which the defendant was convicted of robbing some convenience stores in Texas. Four stores, in fact, of about $4000 all told, if I recall rightly. Anyway, there was no connection at all to interstate commerce. None. The stores weren’t stocked from out of state; they served practically no interstate traffic. The stores weren’t even near a bus stop or anything. Nevertheless McFarland was tried under a federal law for committing a robbery that affected interstate commerce on the theory that had if everyone went around robbing stores, that would affect interstate commerce. This is called the “aggregation” theory.
If Mr. McFarland had been tried for violating Texas law, he would have served perhaps 10 years in state prison. Instead, he was convicted of violating the federal law, and sent to nearly one hundred years in federal prison. (You’ll find the Fifth Circuit’s opinion in at 311 F.3d 376 (2002).)
For some related issues, check out the Overcriminalized website.
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