Convictions for July 2012
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2012 the government reported 1064 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 9% 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 2012 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was down (-7.8 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 14.3 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The decrease 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 2012 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 53 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (27.7%), " Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (17.1%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2012, no 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 2012, 1063 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 2012referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 437 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 398 2 2 2 More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 7 3 4 4 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 6 4 3 3 More 21 USC 963 - Attempt and conspiracy 6 4 6 6 More 46 USC 70503 - Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US 6 4 15 21 More 18 USC 1962 - RICO - prohibited activities 3 7 5 15 More 21 USC 843 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts C 2 8 7 7 More 21 USC 952 - Importation of controlled substances 2 8 9 9 More 18 USC 4 - Misprision of Felony 1 10 11 12 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 1 10 27 21 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 1 10 11 7 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 1 10 33 - More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 1 10 11 14 More 18 USC 1952 - Racketeering -interstate/foreign travel/transport 1 10 27 18 More 18 USC 3146 - Penalty for failure to appear 1 10 16 16 More 18 USC 3565 - Revocation of probation 1 10 - 42 More 18 USC 3583 - Term of supervised release after imprisonment 1 10 26 - More 21 USC 812 - Schedules of controlled substances 1 10 - - More 21 USC 959 - Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo 1 10 33 - More 31 USC 5324 - Structuring transactions to evade reporting requir 1 10 19 42 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 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 "Laundering of monetary instruments" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1956. "Laundering of monetary instruments" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 1956 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 convictions—up 1200 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 959 that involves " Possession, manufacture, or distribution for purpo ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—440 percent—was registered for convictions under " Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US " (Title 46 U.S.C Section 70503 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 80 percent—was Misprision of Felony (Title 18 U.S.C Section 4 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 84.6 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2012 the Justice Department said the government obtained 415.5 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 Dakota 3,154 17 1 55 57 More Texas, W 2,486 127 2 2 2 More Ala, S 2,036 14 3 65 61 More N. Y., S 1,986 85 4 4 5 More Wyoming 1,984 9 5 15 69 More Iowa, N 1,932 21 6 20 31 More N Mexico 1,851 31 7 7 6 More Alaska 1,227 7 8 86 73 More Texas, E 1,189 35 9 8 13 More Vermont 1,158 6 10 51 69 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of North Dakota—with 3154 convictions as compared with 415.5 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2012.
The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd. The Western District of Texas (San Antonio) was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 for most frequent use five years ago.
Southern District of Alabama (Mobile) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Wyoming , now ranked 5th , and Northern District of Iowa (Cedar Rapids) at 6th In the same order, these districts ranked 15th and 20th one year ago and 69th and 31st five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 220 percent—was Alaska . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 84 percent—was Vermont .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions— 68.3 percent—was Wyoming . But over the past five years, Southern District of New York (Manhattan) showed the largest drop— 27.6 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 resulting in convictions of this type during July 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 58 1 1 1 More Yeakel, Earl Leroy, III Texas, W 28 2 125 198 More Erickson, Ralph R. N Dakota 17 3 21 25 More Crone, Marcia A. Texas, E 16 4 33 93 More Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 16 4 10 7 More Gelpi, Gustavo Antonio, Jr. Puer Rico 15 6 334 728 More Moses, Alia Texas, W 14 7 5 - More Schell, Richard A. Texas, E 13 8 26 45 More Stewart, Brian Theadore Utah 13 8 31 276 More Bennett, Mark W. Iowa, N 12 10 15 36 More Parker, James Aubrey N Mexico 12 10 71 13 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 8 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 3 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 58 convicted in convictions. Judge Junell appeared in the top ten rankings one year (ranked 1) and five years ago (rank 1).
Judge Earl Leroy Yeakel, III in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 2nd with 28 convicted in convictions.
Judge Ralph R. Erickson in the District of North Dakota ranked 3rd with 17 convicted in convictions.
Report Generated: October 1, 2012
