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In a functional state the state police does that job. In a solidly one-party state only the minority party gets prosecuted because the majority party will stil

In a functional state the state police does that job. In a solidly one-party state only the minority party gets prosecuted because the majority party will still win even if they look like corrupt buffoons. <insert Chicago joke here>

deleted 4y ago
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danans 4y ago
> In a functional state the state police does that job. If the specific crimes are Federal as it was in this case, then the Federal law enforcement agency must get involved. Otherwise your argument reduces to "there should be no Federal laws against wire fraud, honest services fraud, and money laundering"
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  States enforce federal statutes all the time. They just frequently turn the prosecution over to the feds. There's no reason you local DA can't do that.
  - danans 4y ago
    > States enforce federal statutes all the time. Only when the state statute coincidentally matches the federal statute, for crimes like bank robbery that are defined at the state and federal level. If the state doesn't have a law against the crime (i.e. South Carolina has no laws regarding hate crimes [1], but the federal government does [2]), then federal prosecutors are responsible for prosecuting those. One can't escape prosecution for a federal crime because there is no state law against it. Prosecuting federal crimes at a local level is exactly why the regional US attorneys offices exist. In the case in from the article, the crimes committed by the state Senator (wire fraud, money laundering, etc) are federal by definition, so a local DA isn't going to prosecute them anyways. 1. https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-columbia-south-carolina-charleston-legislature-6e810531bc05cd1b572f8fa9c6f67fc1 https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-columbia-south-caro... 2. https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crime-laws https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crime-laws

deleted 4y ago

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danans 4y ago

> In a functional state the state police does that job. If the specific crimes are Federal as it was in this case, then the Federal law enforcement agency must get involved. Otherwise your argument reduces to "there should be no Federal laws against wire fraud, honest services fraud, and money laundering"

throwaway0a5e 4y ago
States enforce federal statutes all the time. They just frequently turn the prosecution over to the feds. There's no reason you local DA can't do that.
- danans 4y ago
  > States enforce federal statutes all the time. Only when the state statute coincidentally matches the federal statute, for crimes like bank robbery that are defined at the state and federal level. If the state doesn't have a law against the crime (i.e. South Carolina has no laws regarding hate crimes [1], but the federal government does [2]), then federal prosecutors are responsible for prosecuting those. One can't escape prosecution for a federal crime because there is no state law against it. Prosecuting federal crimes at a local level is exactly why the regional US attorneys offices exist. In the case in from the article, the crimes committed by the state Senator (wire fraud, money laundering, etc) are federal by definition, so a local DA isn't going to prosecute them anyways. 1. https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-columbia-south-carolina-charleston-legislature-6e810531bc05cd1b572f8fa9c6f67fc1 https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-columbia-south-caro... 2. https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crime-laws https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crime-laws