The Federal/State Criminal Prosecution Nexus: A Case Study in Cooperation and Discretion

Abstract

Contemporary studies of prosecutorial decision making at the state level are infrequent, and even fewer studies examine the discretionary decisions of federal prosecutors. In addition, virtually no scholarly literature examines the growing overlap between federal and state criminal jurisdiction. This paper advances both theoretical and empirical understandings of the organizational and political contexts in which prosecutorial discretion takes place by ex-ploring the nexus between federal and state criminal jurisdictions. Drawing on interview research in a large urban area with several active federal/state cooperative prosecution programs, we suggest that these cooperative relations open new avenues of discretion for local and federal prosecutors; limit the authority of other court actors, including state judges; and erode the dis-tinctions between federal and local criminal jurisdiction. In 1992, Jerald Oakes Jr. was convicted of violating federal marijuana statutes in the Eastern District of Washington and sentenced to five years in prison. Oakes appealed his conviction on the grounds that the government violated his due process and equal protection rights by prosecuting him in federal court when other, similarly situated first-time offenders were prose-cuted in state court, where they faced a maximum of 90 days in jail. 1 The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recognized that Oakes had been investigated and arrested wholly by state law-enforcement authorities and that federal n 2005 American Bar Foundation. 0897-6546/2005-3002-239$10.00