Prosecutions for July 2009
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2009 the government reported 1209 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 down 16.2% 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 2009 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (2.3 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 12.7 percent from levels reported in 2004.
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 July 2009 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 61.2 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (18.5%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (16.3%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2009, 391 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 July 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 65.2 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (21%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2009, 818 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 375 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 July.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during July 2009referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 562 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 362 2 2 2 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 9 3 3 4 More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts C 8 4 8 5 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 6 5 4 3 More 18 USC 2118 - Robberies/burglaries w/controlled substances 5 6 18 - More 18 USC 3146 - Penalty for failure to appear 4 7 14 19 More 46 :70503 4 7 12 - More 18 USC 846 - Explosives - Additional powers of the Secretary 3 9 11 11 More 18 USC 1513 - Retaliating against a witness, victim or informant 3 9 - 19 More 21 USC 856 - Establishment for manufacturing operations 3 9 24 12 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 the 1 most frequently invoked 5 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 the 2 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 3rd was "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was the 4 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 700 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 856 that involves " Establishment for manufacturing operations ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—280 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Penalty for failure to appear " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 3146 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 64.3 percent—was 46 :70503 (Title 46 U.S.C Section 70503 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 75.8 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Explosives - Additional powers of the Secretary " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 846 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2009 the Justice Department said the government brought 479.2 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 Arizona 2,842 146 1 6 7 More N Mexico 2,657 43 2 7 6 More Alaska 2,480 14 3 72 85 More New Hamp 2,195 24 4 94 80 More N Dakota 1,882 10 5 72 78 More Ala, M 1,881 17 6 67 81 More Mo, E 1,664 40 7 16 13 More Cal, S 1,545 40 8 23 12 More Iowa, N 1,378 15 9 42 44 More Texas, W 1,234 59 10 1 1 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Arizona—with 2842 prosecutions as compared with 479.2 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2009. The District of Arizona was ranked 6 a year ago, while it was ranked 7 five years ago.
The District of New Mexico ranked 2nd. The District of New Mexico was ranked 7 a year ago, while it was ranked 6 five years ago.
District of Alaska is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis), now ranked 7th , and Southern District of California (San Diego) at 8th In the same order, these districts ranked 16th and 23rd one year ago and 13th and 12th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 1400 percent—was New Hampshire . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 120 percent—was Middle District of Alabama (Montgomery).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 19.2 percent—was Western District of Texas (San Antonio). But over the past five years, New Mexico showed the largest drop— 11.6 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 July 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 30 1 1 1 More Zapata, Frank R. Arizona 22 2 76 98 More Bury, David C. Arizona 22 2 152 23 More Webber, E. Richard Mo, E 22 2 104 544 More Jorgenson, Cindy K. Arizona 18 5 130 38 More Davis, Michael J. Minnesota 18 5 499 163 More Arcara, Richard Joseph N. Y., W 18 5 13 36 More Collier, Curtis Lynn Tenn, E 14 8 29 38 More Jack, Janis Graham Texas, S 14 8 6 6 More Hayes, William Q. Cal, S 13 10 438 - More Autrey, Henry Edward Mo, E 13 10 111 488 More
Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 7 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 4 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Robert A. Junell in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 1st with 30 defendants in cases. Judge Junell appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 1) and five years ago (rank 1).
Judges Frank R. Zapata in the District of Arizona, David C. Bury in the District of Arizona and E. Richard Webber in the Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) ranked 2nd with 22 defendants in cases.
