Opinion ID: 2792510
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdictional principles

Text: Second degree murder is a federal criminal offense if it occurs within the “special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” 18 U.S.C. § 1111(b). For offenses in Title 18 of the United States Code, the United States’s special maritime and territorial jurisdiction includes, inter alia, the “high seas” and “any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular [s]tate.” Id. § 7(1). It also includes the United States’s “territorial sea.” Antiterrorism and Effective Death 1 We review legal issues raised in a § 2255 proceeding de novo and the district court’s factual findings for clear error. Lynn v. United States, 365 F.3d 1225, 1232 (11th Cir. 2004). 2 Case: 14-10361 Date Filed: 04/09/2015 Page: 3 of 7 Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), Pub. L. No. 104-132, § 901(a), 110 Stat. 1214, 1317 (1996); see also 18 U.S.C. § 7, historical and statutory notes). 2 For purposes of federal criminal jurisdiction, the term “high seas” refers to “all waters seaward of the territorial sea baseline.” 33 C.F.R. § 2.32(a) (emphasis added). The territorial sea baseline is ordinarily the mean low water line along the United States’s coast. Id. § 2.20. The “territorial sea” is “the waters, 12 nautical miles wide, adjacent to the coast of the United States and seaward of the territorial sea baseline.” Id. § 2.22(a)(1). In other words, federal criminal jurisdiction begins at the coast’s mean low water line and extends out into the sea. Meanwhile, both Florida and federal law recognize that Florida’s coastal boundaries extend three geographical miles into the sea. Specifically, Florida’s Constitution sets the state’s eastern boundary at the edge of the Gulf Stream or a distance of three geographical miles, whichever is the greater distance. Fla. Const., art. II, § 1. 2 Section 7(1) states in full that “special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States” includes: (1) The high seas, any other waters within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any particular State, and any vessel belonging in whole or in part to the United States or any citizen thereof, or to any corporation created by or under the laws of the United States, or of any State, Territory, or District or possession thereof, when such vessel is within the admiralty and maritime jurisdiction of the United States and out of the jurisdiction of any” particular State. 18 U.S.C. § 7(1). The AEDPA added that “all the territorial sea of the United States . . . for purposes of Federal criminal jurisdiction is part of the United States, subject to its sovereignty, and is within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States for the purposes of title 18, United States Code.” Pub. L. No. 104-132, § 901(a), 110 Stat. at 1317. 3 Case: 14-10361 Date Filed: 04/09/2015 Page: 4 of 7 Similarly, the federal Submerged Lands Act sets the seaward boundaries of each coastal state “as a line three geographical miles distant from its coast line,” 43 U.S.C. § 1312, and grants each state title and ownership of the lands, minerals, and other natural resources beneath navigable waters within those three geographical miles, id. § 1311(a). The Submerged Lands Act also transfers to the states “the right and power to manage, administer, lease, develop, and use” the submerged lands and waters, id. § 1311(a)(2), but it reserves certain rights to the United States, such as the right to use, develop, improve, or control the waters “for the purposes of navigation or flood control or the production of power,” id. § 1311(d), and all rights in and powers of regulation and control for the purposes of commerce, navigation, national defense, and international affairs, id. § 1314(a); see also United States v. California, 436 U.S. 32, 40, 98 S. Ct. 1662, 1666 (1978). In Murray v. Hildreth, the former Fifth Circuit concluded that a murder committed on or alongside a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, within 200 feet of the Florida coast near Dania Beach was committed on the “high seas” because it was committed on the ocean below the low water mark of Florida’s coast. Murray, 61 F.2d 483, 484-85 (5th Cir. 1932) (involving the predecessor statute to 18 U.S.C. § 1111).3 Just as Thompson does here, Murray argued that the murder he was 3 This Court adopted as binding precedent all decisions of the former Fifth Circuit issued prior to October 1, 1981. Bonner v. City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1207 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc). 4 Case: 14-10361 Date Filed: 04/09/2015 Page: 5 of 7 charged with committing was “within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the state of Florida.” Id. at 484. The Fifth Circuit rejected this argument. The Court explained that, although the crime was committed within the State of Florida’s three miles of territorial waters, the statutory requirement that the offense be committed “out of the jurisdiction of any particular State” did not apply to high seas crimes, but only to crimes committed “on any other waters,” such as rivers, havens, and bays. Id. at 485 (citing United States v. Rodgers, 150 U.S. 249, 266, 14 S. Ct. 109, 117-16 (1893)). The Court concluded that “Congress has taken jurisdiction of crimes committed on the high seas within the three-mile limit . . . .” Id. The Murray Court explicitly left undecided whether the State of Florida had concurrent jurisdiction to also prosecute the defendant. Id.