No one could have foreseen the growth of Internet related crimes at the advent of the digital age. Today, not a week goes by without the announcement of some huge Internet-based computer theft, or hacking scheme jeopardizing countless confidential personal or financial databases and the files contained therein, or a security break in a sensitive governmental database, to name a few. The digital world has facilitated the growth of many industries including the expansion of criminal organizations, and the growth and development in a variety of new methodologies to commit the same old crimes but in increased scope, scale and harm. Many of these crimes have vague geographic boundaries creating threats that may result in close scrutiny by multiple sovereigns including federal, state and local law enforcement. A particular cyber crime may be plotted and/or intended to occur by its perpetrators in one or more jurisdictions, and multiple parallel state and federal investigations may target parts of these criminal ventures and the criminal organizations behind them. The government agencies involved in the investigation of these matters may not be aware of each other’s interest until their paths cross from some later discovered common thread. Thereafter, the courts are inevitably called upon to referee these parallel cases after arrests are made and the cases appear on their dockets. This article will discuss some of these established rules and how the courts have applied them.
Dual Sovereignty Doctrine
The constitutional prohibition against being twice put in jeopardy provided in the double jeopardy clauses of the federal and state constitutions stands in the forefront limiting the possibility of successive prosecutions. N.Y. Constit Art I, §6. The double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that no “person shall be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” U.S. Const. amend. V, cl. 2. The double jeopardy clause protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal; a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction; and multiple punishments for the same offense.
