Opinion ID: 440207
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jurisdiction to Try Benitez.

Text: 18 Benitez argues that the district court had no jurisdiction to try him because he is not a United States citizen and the acts from which the charges stem occurred in Colombia. In resolving this issue, it is important that the crimes for which Benitez has been convicted were assault upon United States DEA agents, attempted murder of United States DEA agents, and theft of United States government property. Given the nature of the offenses and the identity of the victims, we conclude that the district court had jurisdiction to try and convict Benitez. 19 In Rivard v. United States, 375 F.2d 882 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 389 U.S. 884, 88 S.Ct. 151, 19 L.Ed.2d 181 (1967), the court set forth the principles governing assertion of jurisdiction in this type of case: 20 Under international law a state does not have jurisdiction to enforce a rule of law prescribed by it, unless it has jurisdiction to prescribe the rule. Restatement, Second, Foreign Relations Law of the United States Sec. 7(2). 21 It is for this reason that the mere physical presence of the four alien appellants before the court did not give the district court jurisdiction. The question remains whether their conduct without the United States had such a deleterious effect within the United States to justify this country in prohibiting the conduct. Restatement, Second, supra Sec. 18. 22 The law of nations permits the exercise of criminal jurisdiction by a nation under five general principles. They are the territorial, national, protective, universality, and passive personality principles. Rocha v. United States, 9 Cir., 1961, 288 F.2d 545; cert. den. 366 U.S. 948, 81 S.Ct. 1902, 6 L.Ed.2d 1241 .... 23 375 F.2d at 885 (footnotes omitted). 24 Two of the principles enumerated in Rivard are applicable in this case--the protective principle and the passive personality principle. Under the former, jurisdiction is based on whether the national interest is injured; under the latter, jurisdiction is based on the nationality or national character of the victim. See also United States v. Layton, 509 F.Supp. 212 (N.D.Cal.1981). We have no doubt that jurisdiction exists in this case under these principles. Under the protective principle, the crime certainly had a potentially adverse effect upon the security or governmental functions of the nation. See United States v. Pizzarusso, 388 F.2d 8, 10-11 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 392 U.S. 936, 88 S.Ct. 2306, 20 L.Ed.2d 1395 (1968); Marin v. United States, 352 F.2d 174 (5th Cir.1965). Furthermore, the nationality of the victims, who are also United States government agents, clearly supports jurisdiction. 25 Benitez contends that, even if the United States can properly assert jurisdiction over him in this case, the Congress chose not to do so under the statutes he is charged with violating. It is true that a presumption against extraterritorial application of a statute is often said to apply. See United States v. Cotten, 471 F.2d 744, 750 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 411 U.S. 936, 93 S.Ct. 1913, 36 L.Ed.2d 396 (1973). Nevertheless, there is every indication in this case that Congress intended the statutes in question to have extraterritorial application. As the court stated in Cotten when deciding whether Congress intended that the statute prohibiting theft of government property should apply extraterritorially, [i]t is inconceivable that Congress ... would proscribe only theft of government property located within the territorial boundaries of the nation. Id. Our conclusion in this case with regard to the theft of the agents' passports and credentials is the same. In addition, we hold that assault and attempted murder of DEA agents is exactly the type of crime that Congress must have intended to apply extraterritorially. See Layton, 509 F.Supp. at 217 (applying extraterritorially section 351 of the criminal code, which prohibits murder of a member of Congress). 1 Thus, the district court had the power to apply United States law in this situation. 26