09-27-2017, 10:59 PM
(09-27-2017, 10:52 PM)Dill Wrote: Treating domestic terrorism as a federal crime would help resolve jurisdictional and legal uncertainties surrounding domestic terrorism by providing clear authorization for the investigation and prosecution of domestic terrorists under federal law. It would also help our country unify around a commonsense fact: Domestic terrorism is not a local or state phenomenon — it is a threat to the people of our country that should be confronted clearly and consistently by the federal government.
So the primary goal of a domestic terrorism statute would make prosecution easier by treating it as a federal crime?
The first acts of domestic terrorism the come to my mind, like those perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh or Dylan Ruf, were not particularly difficult or controversial prosecutions. I guess McVeigh's prosecution was federal because he crossed state lines. If property is damaged and people are killed, then no prosecutor will be legally confused because the act was political.
Have there been acts of domestic terrorism whose prosecution was hampered because responsibility for prosecution devolved exclusively upon local and state prosecution?
Antifa re Berkeley
