IT 
must be brought in Federal courts, and those under State 
statutes in State courts. 
For example, the offenses of allowing fires to escape 
from the control of the person having charge, or of allow¬ 
ing fires to spread to the lands of another person without 
using every reasonable and proper precaution to prevent 
such escape, should be taken up under the State law, since 
the Federal law and regulations do not include them. 
This restriction would not be true, however, if the fire 
was willfully set with the purpose of communicating it 
to other land. When it can be proved that fires set on a 
national forest were prearranged by two or more persons, 
prosecution is also possible in the Federal courts on the 
felony charge of conspiracy, under section 37 of 35 Stat. 
1096, cited above. Conspiracy, however, is an exceed¬ 
ingly difficult thing to prove, and the working up of such 
a case usually requires considerable detective ability. 
When an offense is covered by both State law and 
Federal law or regulation, choice of court may depend 
either upon which law covers the case best, in view of 
local circumstances, or the nature of the evidence avail¬ 
able, or upon the speed which may be expected In the 
respective courts, together with the attitude of the officials 
who would have to be concerned or of public sentiment in 
the local communities where minor courts would sit and 
from which juries would be drawn. Especially when a 
suspect can be brought to plead guilty, the justice’s court 
is usually the quickest and best resort. 
Justices’ courts have jurisdiction only over crimes pun¬ 
ishable by a fine of not over $500 or imprisonment of not 
over six months. This, however, covers the maximum 
penalties provided by section 384 of the State Penal Code. 
A crime commenced in one county and finished in 
another can be prosecuted in either county. 
Theoretically, acquittal in a justice’s court constitutes 
no legal bar to a prosecution in a Federal court for the same 
offense, provided the case is one of which the Federal court 
can take appropriate cognizance, but in practice Federal 
authorities are reluctant to prosecute such cases. A serious 
miscarriage of justice, leading to an acquittal in the lower 
