Federal death penalty sought in Charlottesville drug murder case

This Daily Progress story describes the decision by federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty in the case of three men "accused of killing a Charlottesville man over drugs last summer."

Whenever I read about a federal death penalty case, the first question that enters my mind is, why is this a federal case?

Also, the article says the prosecutor is Tim Heaphy. If that's the Tim Heaphy I knew a little bit at U.Va. in the 1980s, I wonder whether he is personally in favor of the death penalty. I would have guessed that he is more a rehabilitation and reconciliation man, but then again, that was a long time ago.