Over the past 20 years, Jim Martin worked under six different U.S. Attorneys. Now he’s in charge.
By Christy Marshall
Photograph by Peter Newcomb
For eight months Jim Martin has been the U.S. attorney, overseeing the work of 60 assistant U.S. attorneys (AUSAs) who prosecute the federal crimes committed in this half of the state. For 15 months in 1999-2000, he worked with then Sen. John Danforth on the Waco case, investigating the conduct of the FBI (and ultimately indicting an AUSA in Texas). Martin took over as U.S. attorney from Ray Gruender when he was named a judge on the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now 47 years old, Martin, a graduate of Webster Groves High School, Notre Dame and the University of Michigan Law School, has (both literally and figuratively) grown up in the U.S. attorney’s office, where he has worked for two decades.
How many cases does this office prosecute per year? Of that number, what percentage goes to trial and what percentage of those cases is won? We handle over 600 cases a year. Approximately five percent go to trial and we win 90 percent or better.
Where do you get your cases? At least 15 agencies bring us cases, including the ATF [Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms], DEA [Drug Enforcement Administration], FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation], Secret Service, Postal Service, DCIS [Defense Criminal Investigative Service], as well as local law enforcement agencies.
Are there baselines determining which cases you will accept? We try to do every one of the cases brought to us. But with limited resources, we only indict cases we believe are winnable.
How are the attorneys allocated? We have 18 handling white collar fraud cases, 12 attorneys on violent crimes, 10 in the drug division, three just on terrorist cases, 10 attorneys in the civil division and five attorneys in the Cape Girardeau office.
What division has been the busiest? A large percentage of the cases we handle are violent crimes. In March 2001, President Bush started Project Safe Neighborhoods, an initiative to get violent offenders and people who use guns illegally off the street. The thrust of the program is a cooperative effort between local and federal law enforcement in order to investigate and prosecute every one we can who is illegally using a gun. The Justice Department authorized five additional attorneys just for these cases and in 2004 we indicted 400 people [in this area].
What can you tell me about the attorneys dealing with terrorists? They are working with the FBI and other agencies. They are working with private businesses on education, on helping them be our eyes and ears for unusual and suspect activity. It is a really different task for a prosecutor. Instead of waiting for a crime to be committed, our task is to ensure that no terrorist act is committed in this district. That requires the lawyers to be engaged in proactive investigative techniques, getting legal authorizations and coordinating all the efforts of all the law enforcement agencies contributing to this cause.
On the drug cases, is the focus still on crack? In the city, the bulk of the cases involve crack but in the Eastern District of Missouri, the focus has definitely shifted to methamphetamine. The problem is that not only is [meth] extremely damaging to the individuals using it, but the manufacturing in these makeshift labs creates danger to everybody in the community.
Are you prosecuting individual drug dealers or large groups? We are handling more in-depth and complicated drug cases, cases with 20-30 individuals. Our investigations focus more on the organizational groups and the source of the drugs. We are convicting more people and getting longer sentences. Can I say it is getting better because of those prosecutions? I can say I think we are stopping it from getting worse.
How has the Blakely case (a recent Supreme Court ruling on sentencing guidelines) affected your office? Blakely came down in my third week in this job. I can say it consumed 50 percent of my time and 50 percent of the time of the supervisors for a couple of months. We have adjusted our process to accommodate Blakely and we have restructured our plea agreements to include a waiving of it.
How difficult is it to have this position so tied to political party? In my 20 years here, the office has had six different U.S. attorneys and I have never seen decisions made on political motives. Having the different U.S. attorneys is not a negative. Each one has brought a fresh perspective.
Why have you stayed so long? Working in the U.S. Attorney’s office is the best job a lawyer can have. You always have the ability to know what you are doing is the right course of action because if you believe someone is not guilty you don’t have to prosecute the case. There is a significant amount of independence for all the lawyers who work here on making the decisions on how to handle the cases.
