{ "id": "RS22361", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "RS22361", "active": true, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 588382, "date": "2018-12-06", "retrieved": "2019-12-20T20:24:53.406320", "title": "Venue: An Abridged Legal Analysis of Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried", "summary": "The United States Constitution assures those charged with a serious federal crime that they will be prosecuted in the state and district in which the crime occurred. A crime occurs in any district in which any of its \u201cconduct\u201d elements are committed. Some offenses are committed entirely within a single district; there they may be tried. Other crimes have elements that have occurred in more than one district. Still other crimes have been committed overseas and so have occurred outside any district. Statutory provisions, court rules, and judicial interpretations implement the Constitution\u2019s requirements and dictate where multi-district crimes or overseas crimes may be tried. \nMost litigation involves either a question of whether the government\u2019s selection of venue in a multi-district case is proper or whether the court should grant the accused\u2019s request for a change of venue. The government bears the burden of establishing venue by a preponderance of the evidence. The defendant may waive trial in a proper venue either explicitly or by failing to object to prosecution in an improper venue in a timely manner. \nSection 3237 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code supplies three general rules for venue in multi-district cases. Tax cases may be tried where the taxpayer resides. Mail and interstate commerce offenses may be tried in any district traversed during the course of a particular crime. And continuous or overlapping offenses may be tried in any district in which they begin, continue, or are completed. For example, conspiracy, perhaps the most common continuous offense, may be tried where the scheme is joined or where any overt act in its furtherance is committed. These general rules aside, a few crimes, like murder or immigration offenses, have individual venue provisions. In most instances, overseas crimes are tried in the district in which the accused is arrested or into which he is first brought from abroad. \nAn accused may request a change of venue for reasons of prejudice, convenience, plea, or sentence. Besides his venue rights, an accused is entitled to trial by an impartial jury. Inflammatory pre-trial publicity and other circumstances may hopelessly taint the pool of potential jurors. Nevertheless, before granting a change of venue, the courts will ordinarily exhaust alternative measures such as examination of potential jurors to ensure their impartiality. Beyond prejudice, a court may also grant a change of venue for the convenience of the accused, the government, the victim, or the witnesses. It rarely does. Finally, with the government\u2019s concurrence, the court may grant a defendant\u2019s request to plea or be sentenced in the district in which they are found.\n\u201cVenue\u201d ordinarily refers to both where a crime may be tried and the district from which the trial jury must be drawn, although technically the latter is more properly referred to as vicinage.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/RS22361", "sha1": "77620fe0d902a820a9954e830887cd111aa04884", "filename": "files/20181206_RS22361_77620fe0d902a820a9954e830887cd111aa04884.html", "images": {} }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "https://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RS22361", "sha1": "f052e636d00a0a815e47f7473f49a1a4c02fc1d4", "filename": "files/20181206_RS22361_f052e636d00a0a815e47f7473f49a1a4c02fc1d4.pdf", "images": {} } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 427634, "date": "2014-01-24", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T20:43:10.695797", "title": "Venue: A Brief Look at Federal Law Governing Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried", "summary": "The United States Constitution assures those charged with a serious federal crime that they are entitled to jury trial in the state and district in which the crime occurred. A crime occurs in any district in which any of its \u201cconduct\u201d elements are committed. Some offenses are committed entirely within a single district; there they must be tried. Other crimes have elements that have occurred in more than one district. Still other crimes have been committed overseas and so have occurred outside any district. Statutory provisions dictate where a multi-district crime or overseas crime may be tried.\nSection 3237 of Title 18 of the U.S. Code supplies three general rules for venue in multi-district cases. Tax cases may be tried where the taxpayer resides. Mail and interstate commerce offenses may be tried in any district traversed during the course of a particular crime. Continuous or overlapping offenses may be tried in any district in which they begin, continue, or are completed. For example, conspiracy, perhaps the most common continuous offense, may be tried where the scheme is joined or where any overt act in its furtherance is committed. These general rules aside, a few crimes, like murder or immigration offenses, have individual venue provisions.\nIn most instances, overseas crimes are tried in the district in which the accused is arrested or into which he is first brought from abroad.\nAn accused may request a change of venue for reasons of prejudice, convenience, plea, or sentence. Besides his venue rights, an accused is entitled to trial by an impartial jury. Inflammatory pre-trial publicity and other circumstances may hopelessly taint the pool of potential jurors. Nevertheless, before granting a change of venue, the courts will ordinarily exhaust alternative measures such as examination of potential jurors to ensure their impartiality. Beyond prejudice, a court may also grant a change of venue for the convenience of the accused, the government, victims, and witnesses. It rarely does. Finally, with the government\u2019s concurrence, the court may grant a defendant\u2019s request to plea or be sentenced in the district in which they are found.\nThis report is an abridged version of CRS Report RL33223, Venue: A Legal Analysis of Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried, by Charles Doyle, stripped of the footnotes and most of the citations to authority found in the longer version.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": true, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RS22361", "sha1": "92f20463bdbbc4a3d631057cb8683570a2cd5521", "filename": "files/20140124_RS22361_92f20463bdbbc4a3d631057cb8683570a2cd5521.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/RS22361", "sha1": "1d603cba4067b5653c32f06b28c743c0f346254e", "filename": "files/20140124_RS22361_1d603cba4067b5653c32f06b28c743c0f346254e.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs8391/", "id": "RS22361 2006-01-06", "date": "2006-01-06", "retrieved": "2006-02-28T09:29:45", "title": "Venue: A Brief Look at Federal Law Governing Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20060106_RS22361_3edeb7a3ae467e8bf1966b0517f36f6701369880.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20060106_RS22361_3edeb7a3ae467e8bf1966b0517f36f6701369880.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Law", "name": "Law" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Trials", "name": "Trials" } ] } ], "topics": [ "American Law" ] }