Prosecutions for August 2012
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during August 2012 the government reported 1307 new prosecutions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 21.5% 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 down (-14.9 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 14.7 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 "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 41.7 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (31.1%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (23.9%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In August 2012, 254 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 21 U.S.C Section 841 involving the "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A". This was the lead charge for 50.4 percent of all magistrate filings in August.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (29.9%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In August 2012, 1053 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during August there were an additional 202 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 Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 443 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 336 2 2 2 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 20 3 3 3 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 16 4 5 4 More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 8 5 4 7 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 5 6 10 21 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 4 7 25 14 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 2 8 9 10 More 18 USC 1028 - Fraud and related activity - id documents 2 8 - - More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 2 8 35 - More 21 USC 813 - Treatment of Controlled Substance Analogues 2 8 - - More 21 USC 844 - Penalty for simple possession 2 8 16 13 More 21 USC 863 - Drug paraphernalia 2 8 - 26 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 2 8 11 12 More 21 USC 960 - Prohibited acts A 2 8 35 44 More Table 2: Top charges filed
"Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 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 963. "Attempt and conspiracy" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 963 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 250 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 371 that involves " Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—280 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Drug paraphernalia " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 863 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 54.4 percent—was Attempt and conspiracy (Title 21 U.S.C Section 963 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 71.4 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Penalty for simple possession " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 844 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In August 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 490.5 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 N Mexico 2,926 49 1 11 5 More Ark, W 2,783 30 2 59 59 More Ill, S 2,355 25 3 36 53 More Miss, S 2,083 32 4 55 54 More N. Y., N 1,561 44 5 29 52 More Iowa, N 1,472 16 6 27 49 More Nevada 1,362 30 7 45 74 More Vermont 1,351 7 8 61 85 More Hawaii 1,297 14 9 50 55 More Texas, W 1,272 65 10 1 1 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of New Mexico—with 2926 prosecutions as compared with 490.5 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during August 2012.
The Western District of Arkansas (Fort Smith) ranked 2nd.
Southern District of Illinois (East St. Louis) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were New Mexico , now ranked 1st , and Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids) at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 27th one year ago and 5th and 49th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 58.3 percent—was Southern District of Mississippi (Jackson). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 266.7 percent—was Nevada .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 36.6 percent—was Vermont . But over the past five years, New Mexico showed the largest drop— 15.4 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 Armstrong, Saundra Brown Cal, N 31 1 616 509 More Scullin, Frederick James, Jr. N. Y., N 27 2 224 115 More Crone, Marcia A. Texas, E 21 3 4 17 More Ramos, Nelva Gonzales Texas, S 21 3 - - More Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 20 5 1 1 More Brack, Robert C. N Mexico 18 6 129 28 More Holmes, Paul Kinloch, III Ark, W 17 7 187 - More Mosman, Michael W. Oregon 16 8 294 - More Garcia Marmolejo, Marina Texas, S 16 8 - - More Walker, Linda T. Ga, N 14 10 616 - More Miller, Robert Lowell, Jr. Ind, N 14 10 187 237 More Reade, Linda R. Iowa, N 14 10 28 39 More Gorton, Nathaniel M. Mass 14 10 77 509 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 5 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 8 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 13 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong in the Northern District of California (San Francisco) ranked 1st with 31 defendants in cases.
Judge Frederick James Scullin, Jr. in the Northern District of New York (Syracuse) ranked 2nd with 27 defendants in cases.
Judges Marcia A. Crone in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) and Nelva Gonzales Ramos in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 21 defendants in cases. Judge Cronealso appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago(ranked 4).
Report Generated: November 19, 2012
