Prosecutions for August 2012
Referring Agency: Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during August 2012 the government reported 697 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is down 9.1% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants charged are based on case-by-case information obtained by TRAC under the Freedom of Information Act from the Executive Office for United States Attorneys. (See Table 1)
When monthly 2012 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was only slightly down (-0.3 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are down 14.1 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The decrease from the levels five years ago in prosecutions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of prosecutions of this type recorded on a month-to-month basis. Where a prosecution was initially filed in U.S. Magistrate Court and then transferred to the U.S. District Court, the magistrate filing date was used since this provides an earlier indicator of actual trends. The superimposed line on the bars plots the six-month moving average so that natural fluctuations are smoothed out. The one and five-year rates of change in Table 1 and in the sections that follow are all based upon this six-month moving average. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Cases were classified by prosecutors into more specific types.
The largest number of prosecutions of these matters in August 2012 was for "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major", accounting for 63.1 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen " (16.2%), "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (8.3%), "Violence-Other" (4.4%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (4%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In August 2012, 87 defendants in cases for these matters were filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. These courts handle less serious misdemeanor cases, including what are called "petty offenses." In addition, complaints are sometimes filed in the magistrate courts before an indictment or information is entered. In these cases, the matter starts in the magistrate courts and later moves to the district court where subsequent proceedings take place.
In the magistrate courts in August the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 involving the "Firearms; Unlawful acts". This was the lead charge for 63.2 percent of all magistrate filings in August.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (12.6%), "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (5.7%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In August 2012, 610 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during August there were an additional 84 defendants whose cases moved from the magistrate courts to the U.S. district courts after an indictment or information was filed. The sections which follow cover both sets of cases and therefore cover all matters filed in district court during August.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during August 2012referred by the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 355 1 1 1 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 65 2 2 2 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 54 3 3 3 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 36 4 4 4 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 25 5 5 7 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 15 6 7 6 More 26 USC 5861 - Tax on Making Firearms - Prohibited acts 7 7 6 5 More 18 USC 842 - Explosives - Importation, manufacture, etc 6 8 17 10 More 18 USC 844 - Explosives - Importation and storage of explosives 4 9 8 8 More 18 USC 554 - Smuggling goods from the United States 3 10 11 23 More 18 USC 3583 - Term of supervised release after imprisonment 3 10 15 41 More Table 2: Top charges filed
"Firearms; Unlawful acts" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 922) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" (Title 18 U.S.C Section 922) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 566.7 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 842 that involves " Explosives - Importation, manufacture, etc ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—300 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Term of supervised release after imprisonment " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 3583 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 39.3 percent—was Explosives - Importation and storage of explosives (Title 18 U.S.C Section 844 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 50 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Tax on Making Firearms - Prohibited acts " (Title 26 U.S.C Section 5861 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In August 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 271.3 prosecutions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of prosecutions that are filed in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of prosecutions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 prosecutions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Ken, E 1,550 28 1 54 26 More Alaska 1,051 6 2 67 62 More Penn, E 1,050 50 3 50 13 More Tenn, M 969 18 4 44 38 More Tenn, W 927 12 5 24 18 More Tenn, E 860 18 6 2 7 More Kansas 766 18 7 8 12 More Ind, N 706 15 8 16 26 More Ken, W 671 12 9 46 43 More N Car, W 611 15 10 26 21 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington)—with 1550 prosecutions as compared with 271.3 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during August 2012.
The District of Alaska ranked 2nd.
Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Northern District of Indiana (South Bend), now ranked 8th , and Western District of Tennessee (Memphis) at 5th In the same order, these districts ranked 16th and 24th one year ago and 26th and 18th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 214.3 percent—was Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 57.3 percent—was Kansas .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 8.1 percent—was Northern District of Indiana (South Bend). But over the past five years, Alaska showed the largest drop— 14.3 percent.
Top Ranked District Judges
At any one time, there are about 680 federal District Court judges working in the United States. The judges recorded with the largest number of new crime cases of this type during August 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Caldwell, Karen K. Ken, E 26 1 571 218 More Joyner, J. Curtis Penn, E 16 2 - 256 More Crone, Marcia A. Texas, E 10 3 21 1 More Russell, Thomas B. Ken, W 9 4 18 17 More Sanchez, Juan Ramon Penn, E 9 4 571 305 More Goldsmith, Mark Allan Mich, E 8 6 9 - More Sharp, Kevin Hunter Tenn, M 8 6 571 - More Springmann, Theresa Lazar Ind, N 7 8 40 154 More Jordan, Robert Leon Tenn, E 7 8 211 460 More Robinson, Julie A. Kansas 6 10 12 78 More Reidinger, Martin Karl N Car, W 6 10 18 - More Haynes, William Joseph, Jr. Tenn, M 6 10 92 61 More Breen, J. Daniel Tenn, W 6 10 25 172 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 11 out of the "top ten" judges were in districts which were in the top ten with the largest number of filings per capita, while the remaining 2 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 13 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Karen K. Caldwell in the Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington) ranked 1st with 26 defendants in cases.
Judge J. Curtis Joyner in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) ranked 2nd with 16 defendants in cases.
Judge Marcia A. Crone in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) ranked 3rd with 10 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: November 19, 2012
