Prosecutions for July 2012
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2012 the government reported 1081 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 4.3% 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 (-16.8 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 15 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 July 2012 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 45.4 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (27.5%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (22.8%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2012, 208 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 64.9 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (25.5%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2012, 873 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 142 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 2012referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 371 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 310 2 2 2 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 10 3 4 4 More 46 USC 70503 - Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US 8 4 13 7 More 21 USC 863 - Drug paraphernalia 5 5 - 28 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 4 6 11 11 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 4 6 9 18 More 18 USC 111 - Assaulting, resisting, impeding certain officers 1 8 - - More 18 USC 912 - False personification - Officer or employee of US 1 8 - 40 More 18 USC 1623 - False declarations before grand jury or court 1 8 - 40 More 18 USC 3146 - Penalty for failure to appear 1 8 14 17 More 18 USC 3583 - Term of supervised release after imprisonment 1 8 32 - More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts C 1 8 6 7 More 21 USC 844 - Penalty for simple possession 1 8 16 15 More 21 USC 856 - Establishment for manufacturing operations 1 8 14 12 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 1 8 3 3 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 "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922. "Firearms; Unlawful acts" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 was ranked 4 a year ago, while it was ranked 4 five 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 18 U.S.C Section 3583 that involves " Term of supervised release after imprisonment ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—325 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 80.2 percent—was Attempt and conspiracy (Title 21 U.S.C Section 963 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 88.2 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Establishment for manufacturing operations " (Title 21 U.S.C Section 856 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 396.7 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 Kansas 2,810 66 1 18 18 More Ga, S 2,463 30 2 47 54 More N Mexico 2,150 36 3 12 7 More Miss, S 2,083 32 4 54 57 More Penn, M 1,320 34 5 27 42 More Iowa, N 1,288 14 6 38 59 More Ark, E 1,203 16 7 49 68 More Texas, W 1,076 55 8 1 1 More Ken, E 1,052 19 9 30 25 More N. Y., S 935 40 10 6 9 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Kansas—with 2810 prosecutions as compared with 396.7 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2012.
The Southern District of Georgia (Savannah) ranked 2nd.
District of New Mexico is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were New Mexico , now ranked 3rd , and Kansas at 1st In the same order, these districts ranked 12th and 18th one year ago and 7th and 18th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 80 percent—was Kansas . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 296.3 percent—was Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 26.1 percent—was Eastern District of Kentucky (Lexington). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 29.3 percent—when compared with five years ago.
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 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Murguia, Carlos Kansas 61 1 324 188 More Smith, G. R. Ga, S 28 2 72 51 More Marrero, Victor N. Y., S 25 3 456 435 More Guirola, Louis, Jr. Miss, S 24 4 280 211 More Kovachevich, Elizabeth Anne Fla, M 22 5 96 103 More Moses, Alia Texas, W 16 6 2 - More O'Neill, Lawrence Joseph Cal, E 15 7 96 211 More Whittemore, James D. Fla, M 15 7 56 158 More Kane, Yvette Penn, M 15 7 186 506 More Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 15 7 1 4 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 3 judges were from other districts.
Judge Carlos Murguia in the District of Kansas ranked 1st with 61 defendants in cases.
Judge G. R. Smith in the Southern District of Georgia (Savannah) ranked 2nd with 28 defendants in cases.
Judge Victor Marrero in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ranked 3rd with 25 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: October 1, 2012
