United States v. Gary E. Jones, United States of America v. Robert Bryant

(dissenting);

Section 11-502(3) of the District of Columbia Code extends the criminal jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to local offenses which are “joined in the same information or indictment with any Federal offense.” In recent years the United States Attorney’s use of this jurisdictional provision to combine charges under both local and federal statutory schemes in order to seek maximum penalties greater than would be available under either scheme alone has raised difficult questions of equal protection, see, e.g., United States v. Shepard, 169…