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The KKK and the SoL

By Kent Scheidegger et al.

Last year, former Klansman James Ford Seale was convicted in federal court of kidnapping Henry Dee and Charles Moore in 1964. The victims were not only kidnapped, they were killed, but murder as such is not a federal offense. One of the problems with prosecuting murderers in federal court is that some other, usually lesser, crime ends up as the tail wagging the dog of murder. But isn't there a statute of limitations problem here? That question turns out to be a bit more complicated than you would think. The general rule in federal cases is that noncapital crimes must be charged within five years but capital offenses have no limit. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 3281, 3282. The federal "Lindbergh Law" at the time of the crime made kidnapping a capital offense if the victim had "not been liberated unharmed...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime and Consequences on September 10, 2008 (boomark / email).