[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 19-10492

Non-Argument Calendar

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D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cr-00451-ELR-JSA-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff-Appellee,

 versus

EDD JASON HUGHES, 

 Defendant-Appellant. 

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No. 19-10980

Non-Argument Calendar

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D.C. Docket No. 1:16-cr-00451-ELR-JSA-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff-Appellee,

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 versus

EDD JASON HUGHES, 

 Defendant-Appellant. 

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Appeals from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Georgia

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(March 24, 2020)

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, GRANT and LUCK, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

Edd Jason Hughes appeals his conviction for possession of a firearm in the 

furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i). He argues that 

the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss his indictment because the 

successive prosecutions of his crimes by the State of Georgia and the United 

States, after conducting a joint investigation, violated the Double Jeopardy Clause.

We affirm.

The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment provides that no 

person may “be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb” “for the same offense.” U.S. 

Const. amend. V; United States v. Baptista-Rodriguez, 17 F.3d 1354, 1360 (11th 

Cir. 1994). But under the dual-sovereignty doctrine, a defendant may be subject to 

successive prosecutions by two sovereigns for the violation of each of their laws if 

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his conduct gives rise to two separate offenses. Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle, 

136 S. Ct. 1863, 1867 (2016). Because states and the federal governments are 

separate sovereigns, a prior state conviction does not bar the federal government 

from prosecuting a defendant for the same conduct. Abbate v. United States, 359 

U.S. 187, 194-95 (1959). In Gamble v. United States, the Supreme Court 

reaffirmed the dual-sovereignty doctrine on the ground that “where there are two 

sovereigns, there are two laws, and two ‘offences.’” 139 S. Ct. 1960, 1965 (2019). 

In Baptista-Rodriguez, we rejected an argument that one sovereign’s control 

over the investigation of another provides an exception to the dual-sovereignty 

doctrine for a sham prosecution:

Every sovereign has the inherent power to determine what shall be an 

offense against its authority and to punish such offenses. This power 

is manifested principally through the decision to prosecute—the 

choice to charge suspected criminals with commission of a crime and 

to pursue the legal process for obtaining convictions against them. To 

be sure, investigation and apprehension usually are necessary 

predicates to the punishment of criminals. But prosecution is the 

formal act by which the government seeks that punishment. 

Independent sovereigns do not forfeit their right to charge and punish 

violations of their own laws because some other sovereign had the 

resources and separate interest to investigate the crimes and expose 

the criminals. 

17 F.3d at 1361–62 (citations omitted). We explained that, even if such an

exception existed, it would require “a showing that one sovereign controlled, 

dominated, or manipulated the prosecution of the defendant by the other.” Id. at 

1362 (emphasis in original). 

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The district court did not err in denying Hughes’s motion to dismiss his 

indictment. As the Supreme Court made clear last year in Gamble, Hughes’s 

prosecution by the federal government, after he was convicted and sentenced in 

Fulton County, Georgia, for the same conduct, did not violate the Double Jeopardy 

Clause. His successive prosecutions were permissible under the dual-sovereignty 

doctrine. And Hughes’s argument that the doctrine is inapplicable because federal 

officials participated in an earlier joint investigation with state officials is 

foreclosed by precedent.

AFFIRMED. 

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