Can a federal court retry a case if it never went to trial on the state level?

Question

a drug conspiracy case never went to trial. The accused was being charged with conspiracy to distribute, but pleaded guilty to possession. This was the lesser charge. He was told by his lawyer to plead guilty.He received three 3years probation. Are there other cases like these, and is it legal for federal court to reopen the case?

Answer 1

Yes and no. You can not be tried for the same charge after the judge has entered a verdict. Even if you plead guilty, the judge has entered the verdict.

However, this does not preclude the federal government (or any other government) from trying you for other criminal charges that may have steamed from the same incident.

As an example, you sold drugs to some one. When you sold the drugs you did not pay federal income tax on the profit from the sale. The federal government could charge you with tax evasion. (Yeah, it's a simplistic example, but you get the point)

Answer 2

Both David and Halo make good points.

I would, however, think that unless huge amounts of money were involved, the Feds wouldn't bother.

There are things to consider though... Say the County of State charged Mr. X with Possession, and he pled Guilty or Pea Bargained and got Probation. Then I don't think the Feds could charge him with Possession because that is "Double Jeopardy". BUT, they could charge, Intent to Distrubute, or the IRS could charge Tax Evasion -- which are both "separarate" charges.

Also, having illegal drugs in a vehicle, for example, means that any juristiction can sieze that vehicle, YOU Lose It. If the local County did not sieze the vehicle, the Feds could come back and find the County, or State, in failure to enforce the law, and then proceed to sieze the vehicle. -- this is how so many cars and boats and planes end up on US Government Auctions, or they keep them for Government use.

It all depends on how much was involved. If Mr. X only got 3 years Probation, that's a slap on the wrist, so I wouldn't think the Feds would pursue it, but you never know now with all the crap that is going on Secretly.

Use the same Attorney, and make sure you have all the records that you can get from the Court that slapped him with Probation. It's likely that a Fed Judge would just toss it aside because of expense to the Courts, plus back logs.

Again, unless there was a lot of drugs involved, I can't see the Feds going too far with it.

Answer 3

Even if a case goes to trial and you are acquitted in state court, you can still face federal charges arising out of the same incident.

This is because there is a separate and distinct set of federal laws that are just different enough that you are not being tried for the same thing twice.

For example, it you are acquitted of the murder of someone of another race in state court, you could still be charged in federal court for violation of that person's civil rights if they were killed because of their race.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Yes, there are many different levels of our court system other than the state level. Also it depends where he was distributing the drugs. Sometimes that can be a federal crime.