Explain like I’m five and foreign, what is the importance of crossing state lines in convictions that they mention it? For example,
22-year-old Matthias Jacob Edward Mann was arrested by the FBI at his family’s home in Hartselle, Alabama Thursday morning. His charges include attempted kidnapping and attempting to entice someone to cross state lines to commit a sexual crime.
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Crossing state lines does not inherently make a crime ‘worse’ nor does it necessarily mean that it becomes a federal crime. If I hold up a liquor store in Tallahassee and flee to Tucumcari, the feds don’t care – the only law enforcement that cares are the police in Tallahassee and they’ll call up the police in Tucumcari to extradite me (if they can locate me).
However, there are crimes that only exist at the federal level because they involve crossing state lines. The one in question here is a violation of the Mann (no relation) Act. If I happen to pick up a prostitute in Tallahassee and complete the transaction in Tucumcari, that ceases to be a relatively minor local crime and becomes a federal crime because of the Mann Act.
Kidnapping, even without involving state lines, is also a federal crime.
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