U.S. Department of Justice Marcos Daniel Jiménez United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida
	99 N.E. 4th Street Miami, FL 33132 (305) 961-9001

LOCAL OFFICIALS TEAM UP WITH NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Federal Gun Crime Prosecutions Hit Record Highs,
While Violent Crime Rate Hits 30-Year Low

Miami, Florida - The national Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN) conference met this week in Kansas City, Missouri, and included a thirteen (13) person delegation from the Miami, Florida area. Attorney General John Ashcroft spoke to over 1,150 federal, state, and local prosecutors, law enforcement officials, community leaders, and other members of the PSN teams from across the nation who came together to discuss efforts to reduce and prosecute gun crime. PSN is President Bush’s comprehensive initiative to combat gun crime in America by providing locally based programs with the tools and resources they need to succeed.

“Through Project Safe Neighborhood’s unprecedented partnership of state, local and federal leaders, we are turning the tide on gun crime,” said Attorney General John Ashcroft. “We are taking gun-wielding criminals off our streets. The last three years represent a record of great success, but working together, we can do even more to make our neighborhoods safe.”

"Our Office is committed to this program, which will make the neighborhoods in our District safer,” said Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. “We will continue to aggressively and successfully prosecute gun-related crimes in South Florida. Gun crime does, indeed, mean hard time in federal prison."

Federal Gun Crime Prosecutions Have Increased Significantly Every Year Under Project Safe Neighborhoods. From FY 2000 to FY 2003, federal firearms prosecutions increased by 68% nationally. In FY 2003, the Justice Department filed the highest number of firearms cases ever recorded by the Department. In FY 2003, nearly all - 93% - of convicted defendants, who were originally charged with federal firearms offenses, were sentenced to some time in prison for convictions on firearms charges or other charges. Seventy-two percent (72%) were sentenced to more than three years in prison, and over half of all defendants convicted were sentenced to more than five years in federal prison. State and local prosecutions also have increased.

Project Safe Neighborhoods Is Working In South Florida. United States Attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez, working side by side with state and local law enforcement, prosecutors and other community leaders, has created a PSN strategy to fit the unique gun crime problem in the Southern District of Florida. Criminals who use guns are prosecuted under federal, state, or local laws, depending on which jurisdiction can provide the most appropriate punishment.

Federal prosecutors in the District have had outstanding results, as demonstrated by two recent PSN prosecutions. On June 9, 2004, AUSAs Nancy Langston and Scott Ray obtained a guilty verdict in United States v. Hunter Demarick. During the trial, the government showed that Demarick, a felon, was in the backseat of an automobile. When a police officer tried to stop the car, Demarick threw a loaded semi-automatic pistol over to a passenger, who in turn, wedged it under the front seat. As an armed career criminal, Demarick faces a 15-year minimum mandatory term of imprisonment.

Earlier this week, on June 16, 2004, defendant, Rodney Taylor, another armed career criminal caught with firearms and ammunition was sentenced to a maximum term of life imprisonment by United States District Court Judge Daniel T. K. Hurley in West Palm Beach, in a prosecution handled by AUSA Janice LeClainche. "These felons are now off the streets and are no longer in a position to wield firearms," said United States Attorney Marcos Daniel Jiménez.

Project Safe Neighborhoods Has Contributed to Decreasing the Violent Crime Rate to Its Lowest Levels in 30 Years, But Reducing Gun Crime Remains an Important Goal. The violent crime rate is now at its lowest level since 1973, when the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics started collecting criminal victimization data. The violent crime rate for the first two years of the Bush Administration (2001-2002) was nearly 21% lower than for 1999-2000. The per capita number of violent crimes involving firearms has dropped 14% in 2001-2002, from 1999-2000. There were approximately 64,000 fewer gun crimes and approximately 12% (almost 130,000) fewer victims of gun crime in 2001-2002, than in 1999-2000.

Project Safe Neighborhoods Takes a Multifaceted Approach to Reducing Gun Crime. Gun crime reduction is President Bush’s top domestic criminal justice initiative, and the Bush Administration has devoted over $1 billion to Project Safe Neighborhoods in its first four years (FY 2001 to FY 2004). The funds have been used to hire new federal, state, and local prosecutors, provide training, hire research and community outreach support, and develop and promote effective prevention and deterrence efforts. Each of the 94 federal judicial districts engages in deterrence and prevention efforts through community outreach and media campaigns and ensures that law enforcement and prosecutors have the training they need.

A photograph of the South Florida PSN team with Attorney General John Ashcroft at the PSN conference is attached below. The PSN conference is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice. To find out more about PSN and its local programs, visit the PSN website at www.psn.gov.

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