Well, not exactly.
If this was not a murder case then yes it would be more severe without a doubt.
The move is basically done to insure that the case is not swept under the
rug by the local jurisdiction.
If the cops are convicted of murder by the local system then the civil rights
case will be dropped most likely.
What you typically see in a civil rights charge is that the federal government
has decided to act because it appears that the local system is not going to
make it happen.
That's a "good o'l boy network" down there. The feds got tired of the good ol boys
not prosecuting Ku Klux Klan murders during the 1960's. So the feds would charge
the klan with violating a persons civil rights by depriving them of life and therefore
extract some justice from the case.
The most well known example of the feds doing this would be the Rodney King case.
After the state of California failed to convict the cops for the King beating the feds
charged the cops with civil rights violations and won a conviction.
The Rodney King trial was held in Simi Valley California which is known to be a
"bed room community" for Los Angeles police officers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simi_Valley,_California
Talk about a stacked deck!!!!
So when you hear "Civil Right Charges have been filed" in a lot of cases that simply means
the federal government does not believe the local government will act in good faith to
prosecute the crime.