Convictions for July 2009
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2009 the government reported 1226 new convictions 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 1.1% over the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted 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 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was only slightlyup (1.6 percent). Convictions over the past year are still much lower than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are down 1.4 percent from levels reported in 2004.
The leveling out from the levels five years ago in convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 1. The vertical bars in Figure 1 represent the number of convictions 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 convictions of these matters in July 2009 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 50.6 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (28.6%), " Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (17.1%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2009, n 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.
Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2009, 1225 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 0 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 convictions 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 484 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 462 2 2 2 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 11 3 4 5 More 21 :00084 11 3 9 - More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts C 7 5 6 6 More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 4 6 5 8 More 18 USC 2118 - Robberies/burglaries w/controlled substances 4 6 13 20 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 4 6 10 3 More 18 USC 1201 - Kidnaping 3 9 - - More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 3 9 3 4 More
Table 2: Top charges for convictions
"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 were "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 and "21 :00084" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 84. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 4 a year ago, while it was the 5 most frequently invoked 5 years ago.."21 :00084" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 84 was ranked 9 a year ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions—up 100 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 84 that involves "21 :00084 ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—175 percent—was registered for convictions under " Robberies/burglaries w/controlled substances " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2118 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 43.2 percent—was Laundering of monetary instruments (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1956 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in convictions— 81 percent—was for convictions where the lead charge was " Importation of controlled substances " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 952 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2009 the Justice Department said the government obtained 492 convictions for every ten million people in the United States.
Understandably, there is great variation in the per capita number of convictions in each of the nation's ninety-four federal judicial districts.
The districts registering the largest number of convictions per capita for these matters last month are shown in Table 3. Districts must have at least 5 convictions to receive a ranking.
Judicial District Percapita Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago N Mexico 2,595 42 1 8 9 More Mo, E 1,830 44 2 15 14 More Texas, W 1,819 87 3 1 1 More Ala, S 1,781 12 4 28 57 More Vermont 1,740 9 5 75 63 More La, E 1,636 19 6 43 58 More Texas, E 1,586 44 7 13 11 More S Dakota 1,370 9 8 68 58 More N Dakota 1,318 7 9 40 94 More Iowa, N 1,286 14 10 58 27 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of New Mexico—with 2595 convictions as compared with 492 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2009. The District of New Mexico was ranked 8 a year ago, while it was ranked 9 five years ago.
The Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) ranked 2nd.
Western District of Texas (San Antonio) is now ranking 3rd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Texas (Tyler), now ranked 7th , and Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 13th and 15th one year ago and 11th and 14th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 118.2 percent—was Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 4200 percent—was North Dakota .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions— 52.4 percent—was Southern District of Alabama (Mobile). But over the past five years, South Dakota showed the largest drop— 19.5 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 resulting in convictions of this type during July 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Yeakel, Earl Leroy III Texas, W 38 1 20 377 More Crone, Marcia A. Texas, E 23 2 14 431 More Jack, Janis Graham Texas, S 20 3 2 4 More Head, Hayden Wilson Jr. Texas, S 18 4 17 2 More Zapata, Frank R. Arizona 15 5 22 33 More Antoon, John II Fla, M 12 6 256 286 More Perry, Catherine D. Mo, E 12 6 224 286 More Autrey, Henry Edward Mo, E 12 6 75 71 More Vazquez, Martha Alicia N Mexico 12 6 418 104 More Collins, Raner Christercunean Arizona 11 10 6 28 More Vratil, Kathryn Hoefer Kansas 11 10 418 254 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 convictions per capita, while the remaining 6 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Earl Leroy Yeakel III in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 1st with 38 convicted in convictions.
Judge Marcia A. Crone in the Eastern District of Texas (Tyler) ranked 2nd with 23 convicted in convictions.
Judge Janis Graham Jack in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 20 convicted in convictions. Judge Jack appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 2) and five years ago (rank 4).
