Title 18 — Crimes and Criminal ProcedureRelease 119-73
§3240 Creation of new district or division
Title 18 › Part PART II— - CRIMINAL PROCEDURE › Chapter CHAPTER 211— - JURISDICTION AND VENUE › § 3240
Summary
If a district or division is changed, crimes committed before the change must be prosecuted as if the change never happened, unless the defendant asks and the court moves the trial to the new district.
Full Legal Text
Title 18, §3240
Crimes and Criminal Procedure — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Whenever any new district or division is established, or any county or territory is transferred from one district or division to another district or division, prosecutions for offenses committed within such district, division, county, or territory prior to such transfer, shall be commenced and proceeded with the same as if such new district or division had not been created, or such county or territory had not been transferred, unless the court, upon the application of the defendant, shall order the case to be removed to the new district or division for trial.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Historical and Revision Notes
1948 ActBased on section 121 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary (Mar. 3, 1911, ch. 231, § 59, 36 Stat. 1103). Section 121 of title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary, was divided into two sections. Only the portion relating to venue in civil cases was left in title 28, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Judicial Code and Judiciary. Minor changes of phraseology were made. 1949 ActThis section [section 50] strikes the second sentence of section 3240 of title 18, U.S.C., as unnecessary. Section “119” of title 28, U.S.C., referred to in such sentence, became section 1404 of title 28 upon its revision and enactment into positive law in 1948, but reference to the latter, in said section 3240 of title 18, U.S.C., is surplusage in view of rule 19 et seq. of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and the remainder of such section 3240.
Editorial Notes
Amendments
1949—Act May 24, 1949, struck out “The transfer of such prosecutions shall be made in the manner provided in section 119 of Title 28”.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
18 U.S.C. § 3240
Title 18 — Crimes and Criminal Procedure
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73