Number: RS22361
Title: Venue: A Brief Look at Federal Law Governing Where a Federal Crime May Be Tried
Authors: Charles Doyle, American Law Division 
Abstract: Federal law promises criminal defendants a proper venue, i.e., trial in the district in which the federal crime was committed. A crime is committed in any district in which any of its "conduct" elements are committed. Some offenses are committed entirely within a single district; there they must be tried. Others begin in one district and are completed in another. They may be tried where they occur unless Congress has limited the choice of venue for the particular offense. Conspiracy may be tried in any district in which an overt act in its furtherance is committed, at least when the commission of an overt act is an element of the conspiracy statute at issue. Crimes committed beyond the territorial confines of the United States are usually tried in the district into which the accused is first brought. The court may grant a change of venue at the behest of the defendant to avoid undue prejudice, for the convenience of the parties, or for sentencing purposes. This 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. Related reports include CRS Report RS22360, Venue for Federal Criminal Prosecution: Proposals in the 109th Congress, by Charles Doyle.
Pages: 6
Date: January 6, 2006