Legal Question

[Meiko]

Any lawyers out there? I read last week where the Federal Government was considering a hate crime charge against Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. My question is since the trial hasn't officially started yet when do the Fed's have to file the charges? They can't wait until after the trial has started, right? If they file charges now does everyone have to go back for new hearings to set bail and so on?

I was just curious, I am not sure of the rules governing this sort of thing. If charges can be filed anytime it would make things hard on the defense and confuse the process. If the charges must be filed prior to the start of the trial the Fed's had better hurry.

[Sienna86]

1. Federal versus state charges

The murder charge is from the state. The hate crime charge would be brought separately by the Feds.

[jberryhill]

2. The feds can act when they want

Zimmerman is currently being prosecuted by the state of Florida, in the Florida court system, under Florida law.

A federal prosecutor can charge and try Zimmerman in a federal court for a violation of federal law, upon indictment of Zimmerman by a grand jury.

These two processes don't have much to do with each other.

HOWEVER, it is normal for the state and federal prosecutors to coordinate, and for the federal prosecutors to defer to allowing state processes to run.

[treestar]

3. The federal charges are separate from the state charges

There would be different things to prove for the prosecutors. There are separate federal courts in which the federal charges would be tried. Inconsistent results are entirely possible, as the juries would be different. The Feds would likely also have to prove the killing and its motive, unlike the state courts. The penalties are entirely different and carried out by the separate government entities.

[Meiko]

4. Makes more sense now

Thanks a lot.....