BOSTON – Charles Jaynes, already serving a life sentence in a state prison for the kidnapping and murder of a 10-year-old boy from Cambridge, could face the federal death penalty for the same crime, despite opposition by the young victim’s father to capital punishment.

Federal prosecutors in Boston have asked U.S. Attorney John D. Ashcroft to consider filing a death penalty charge against Jaynes, 28, one of two men convicted in the 1997 kidnapping and murder of Jeffrey Curley, whose body was dumped in a Maine river, The Boston Globe reported.

If the request is approved, it would be the first time since the federal Death Penalty Act was enacted in 1998 that the death penalty would be sought against someone already serving a life sentence imposed by a state court in the same place, legal observers said.

Prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston declined to comment on the case, the Globe said.

U.S. Justice Department officials recently briefed the Curley family on the plan, telling them Ashcroft was expected to reach a decision soon and a grand jury could be convened this fall.

Robert Curley Sr., the boy’s father, said he does not support the effort to bring the death penalty, but added the boy’s mother and brothers are enthusiastic.

“I was kind of overruled,” he said of the family reaction. “I’m not going to go out there holding rosary beads and holding a sign for Jaynes. But, again, I’m against the death penalty, and they know that.”

Curley said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Gerald T. Leone Jr. informed him on Saturday that witnesses in the case were being interviewed.

Jaynes and his co-defendant, Salvatore Sicari, were charged with luring Jeffrey Curley into a car, then killing him by holding a gas-soaked rag to his mouth after he resisted their sexual advances. Sicari told police that Jaynes was the one who killed the boy.

The boy’s body was stuffed into a plastic container, placed in the trunk of Jaynes’ car and then dumped into a southern Maine river.

In 1999, Sicari was convicted of first-degree murder, and Jaynes was convicted of second-degree murder. They were sentenced to life in prison.

The federal death penalty statute covers crimes in which death results after a defendant crosses state lines to have sexual relations with a child under 12.

Robert Jubinville, an attorney who represented Jaynes during the state trial, was unaware of efforts to seek the death penalty against his former client.

“That’s so goofy,” he said. “It was clear to me, when I tried the case, that Sicari was the one who committed the crime.”