Federal Criminal Defense

Federal criminal charges are different than state criminal charges. On this page, we provide as much information as we can about federal criminal charges so that people who are caught up in the federal criminal justice system have access to as much information as possible. 

Federal criminal charges are different than charges in state court. Most people know something of how things work in state court, if only through television shows. Federal court is different.

If you’re facing federal charges, you should know what these differences are. You should hire a lawyer who knows what the differences are too. If you'd like to talk to a lawyer with experience in federal court, call us at (405) 896-8080.

Here are the major differences between state court criminal charges and federal criminal charges:

The Prosecutors Are Different
Federal prosecutors are called Assistant United States Attorneys. They tend to have fewer cases than state prosecutors and they tend to spend more time working on the cases they bring. That means that if you are in federal court, and a federal prosecutor has already decided that your case is one that he or she is giving attention to.

In state court, often the police decide who to charge and a state prosecutor only sees it shortly before court. That’s not what normally happens in federal court. More and more, federal prosecutors work with federal law enforcement agents as cases are developed. By the time you find out that you’ve been charged with a federal crime, the AUSA has probably been investigating you for weeks, if not longer.

The Judges Are Different

Federal crimes are heard by federal judges. There are two kinds of federal judges that will be involved in any federal felony. 

First, there are United States Magistrate Judges. A magistrate judge will likely be the first judge you appear in front of after you are arrested on federal charges. A federal magistrate judge may also hear some motions in your case.

The second kind of judge is a United States District Judge. These judges are appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. A federal district court judge serves for life, and can only be removed by being impeached by the Senate.

The Court’s Schedule Is Different

A federal district court judge has many fewer cases than most state court judges. In state court, many cases are set for the same court hearing. This rarely happens in federal court. If you have a court hearing in federal court, normally your case is the only one that will be heard at that time. 

If you have a trial set in federal court, your case is almost always the only case set for trial in front of that judge on that day.

Because state court trial days are unpredictable, sometimes, in state court, you can simply wait until the last minute and the prosecutor won’t be ready. In state court, the judge will then sometimes dismiss the case.

Cases are almost never dismissed in federal court because the prosecutor isn’t ready. Because everyone knows that on the day of trial the trial will start, the AUSA will make sure that his or her witnesses are present and ready.

Bail Is Different
In state court, bail is often simply a question of coming up with money. In federal court, by contrast, the judge will impose conditions of release, and supervision by an officer in a federal pretrial services office.

These conditions can include a monetary bail, but more likely they require you to check in frequently with the pretrial services officer, receive mental health testing or treatment, and submit to a review of your financial information – particularly for a white-collar crime.

Sometimes, if someone is a more serious risk of flight or a danger the community, the court may require that the person live at home on electronic monitoring, with an ankle bracelet. This is becoming more frequent when the person who is accused of a crime has significant contacts outside of the United States.

The Jury Pool Is Different

In state court, the jury pool comes from people who are in the same county as the court. Potential federal jurors, on the other hand, come from the judicial district or judicial division where the court is located. A federal judicial district normally includes a large number of counties. 

In every federal district court other than the federal court in the District of Columbia and the Southern District of New York in Manhattan, the jurors in federal court come from a more geographically diverse area than in state court. Because the jurors come from a wider geographic area, they tend to be more demographically diverse than a state court jury. 

How Sentence Is Imposed Is Different

Federal sentencing is based on the federal sentencing guidelines, and a host of federal laws that govern how a sentenced is to be imposed in federal court. These are technical areas of the law that are tremendously complex and require an attorney who is well versed and current on federal law and case precedent.

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How Federal Criminal Cases Work

If you’re facing federal charges, you should know what these differences are. You should hire a lawyer who knows what the differences are too. We provide critical defense in the area of:

There are three steps to a federal criminal case. This page contains an overview, and there are links that have more information about specific parts of a case. And we're continually trying to make this page better - if there's a question you have that isn't answered here, please contact us directly at (405) 896-8080.

Pretrial

During this part of the case, a person is charged, whether they'll be in jail or released (and, if released, on what conditions), the Assistant United States Attorney will have to provide evidence about the case, and pretrial motions about whether the case should be dismissed or some evidence should be thrown out will be filed.

Trial or Plea

During this stage, one of three things will happen. In the majority of federal criminal cases, a person will plead guilty. If a person accused of a federal crime pleads guilty, the case goes to sentencing where the judge will consider all relevant information and will order the sentence to be imposed.

If the person decides not to take a plea, the case goes to trial. If the jury says the person was not guilty, then the case is over and the the person goes on with their life. If the jury says the person was guilty, though, the case then goes to sentencing.

And, finally, in some rare cases a defense lawyer can talk a prosecutor into dismissing the case.

Sentencing and Federal Sentencing Guidelines

Federal sentencing is incredibly complicated. One thing that'll be very important are the federal sentencing guidelines. It's a book that's put out by an independent commission, the sentencing commission, that sets a range of imprisonment for each federal crime and for each person who commits a crime. It'll be very important to work on and figure out what that range will be. It's something that the judge will look at.

The second thing is the judge doesn't have to follow the recommendation of the guidelines. The judge can impose whatever sentence that the he or she wants to. And the judge is required to look at a number of factors, to look at you as a person, to look at what happened and why it happened, to look at how people were harmed by the crime, and you need to have a lawyer who is working with you and explaining the factors to you so that you can convince the judge of the lowest sentence possible.

he federal sentencing guidelines were created by congress, they're issued by the United States Sentencing Commission, and what they do is they try to set out a range in months for each kind of federal crime, for each kind of person who commits a crime. They have really three parts.

First they look at a person’s criminal history. So, if the person being sentenced has never committed a crime before, they’re criminal history category one. If they've committed lots of crimes they’re in criminal history category six and the punishments in months get longer if they have more criminal history.

They look at this crime and so if you've committed bank fraud, they look at every bank fraud case and they create an offense level for each kind of crime to try to show that bank fraud is a little bit less bad than murder, but it’s still more significant and other kinds of offenses.

And then there are a set of departures in adjustments to that guidelines range that can happen. If you plead guilty, they take a few levels off the guidelines range. If there were many, many victims, they will they add levels. And so as you work through this book with your attorney that's the basic framework, that's the basic structure for how the sentencing guidelines work.

It's important to remember the guidelines now, thanks to the Supreme Court, are not mandatory. The judge doesn't have to follow the guidelines when imposing sentence, but they're an important part of what the judge will look at when the sentence is decided.

I talk to a lot of people who were caught up in the Federal Criminal Justice System, people who are under investigation for having committed a federal crime, people who have been accused of a federal crime, people who have been convicted of a federal crime and need to appeal their sentence or deal with a sentence in hearing that’s coming up.

The best advice that I can give to anyone in that situation [aside from that you should hire a lawyer and work closely with that attorney] is that you need to recognize this is a difficult spot, recognize that this is a hard emotional place to be. What's happening is that your Government is saying you did something bad or a loved one of yours did something bad and needs to go to prison and be away from the family, be away from the community for a significant amount of time.

What this is going to do is just cause a cascade of emotions inside you and you should take care of yourself. Realize what's happening, realize how you are reacting to it and go talk to someone who can help, someone who has got the training and the experience to talk to you about how to deal with these feelings.

Find a therapist, go to a therapist, talk to a therapist. If you do you will make better decisions about your case, you will get along better with the people who are around you and who you love and care about and the whole experience as bad as it will be will be just a little bit less bad if you take care of yourself, recognize what's happening and try to be more in control of yourself in this difficult situation.

If you or a loved one has received a target letter indicating that you have become the subject of a federal investigation, do not hesitate and do not waste any time. Contact the law offices of Michael T. Diver, a dedicated Oklahoma criminal defense lawyer. Call us at (405) 896-8080 or complete the form above for your free confidential case evaluation.