Why Is This Murder Case in Federal Court? | Beyond the Verdict Ep. 3

A former Massachusetts police officer is on trial in federal court in Boston for the murder of a young woman. The most common question about the case is the one nobody is answering well: why is this federal at all? She died in an apartment in Canton. The answer is that there is no federal murder law that reaches a private apartment. 18 U.S.C. 1111 defines murder for federal purposes, but its penalty provision only applies within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States - bases, parks, vessels, aircraft. Norfolk County is not in it. Murder is a local crime and always has been. So the government charged the murder through a statute that does reach: killing a person to prevent them reporting a federal offense, which sits in the obstruction chapter and borrows its sentence from the murder statute that could not be charged directly. That is why the indictment pleads malice aforethought and premeditation. In this episode: how a suicide ruling in 2021 became a federal homicide theory in 2024, why the three predicate offenses are in there, why the second count cannot stand on its own, and why a medical examiner's determination is a conclusion rather than a fact. This is doctrine, not evidence. No view on guilt. No prediction of a verdict. A jury is being selected. Michael G. Cashman is a criminal defense attorney in Massachusetts and a former prosecutor. cashman.law General legal education, not legal advice. No comment on the guilt or innocence of any person on trial. Attorney advertising. TAGS criminal defense, federal court, murder charge, jurisdiction, 18 USC 1512, 18 USC 1111, Massachusetts lawyer, former prosecutor, medical examiner, obstruction of justice, criminal law, jury trial