No Issues With Federal Conviction Following State Conviction for Related Conduct

US v. Ball: Ball was in a car in a high crime area when two police officers approached and asked him to get out of the car. He refused and there was a struggle, during which Ball shot one of the officers “directly in the center of his forehead,” killing him. Ball was charged in Virginia state court with capital murder. He reached a plea agreement in which he entered an Alford plea in return for a recommendation of a life sentence, to be suspend with 20 to 60 “active” years, and a promise of no further charges related to the incident. The state court imposed a life sentence, but suspended all by 36 years of it. After public outcry at the perceived lenience of the sentence, Ball was charged federally with being a felon in possession of a firearm, for which he eventually received a statutory maximum sentence or 120 months, to be served consecutively to his state sentence. 

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Ball’s conviction of sentence, rejecting various arguments related to the interplay of the state and federal charges. First, Ball argued that because the issue of his possession of  a firearm had been “necessarily actually determined at the state prosecution,” it violated the Double Jeopardy Clause, regardless of dual sovereignty or collateral-estoppel concerns. The court disagreed, holding that because the state conviction was not the same offense on the elements as the federal offense, Double Jeopardy did not apply (neither his status as a felon, the interstate nexus, nor even the possession of the firearm were elements of the state offense). Second, Ball argued that the federal delay in charging him violated Rule 48 of the Rules of Criminal Procedure. The court again disagreed, noting that the rule applies only to post-arrest situations and there was no such delay after his federal prosecution began. Finally, the court rejected Ball’s argument that his federal prosecution was vindictive, concluding that because the federal charge was not a retrial it was entitled to a presumption of legitimacy that Ball could not overcome.