Prosecutions for March 2012
Referring Agency: Drug Enforcement Administration
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2012 the government reported 1146 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 2.2% 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 2012 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was down (-13.3 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 16.3 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 March 2012 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 48.7 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (26.7%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (19.9%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2012, 237 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 March 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 53.2 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (26.2%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2012, 909 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 231 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 March.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the prosecutions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during March 2012referred by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 523 1 1 1 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 249 2 2 2 More 46 USC 70503 - Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US 9 3 18 11 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 7 4 5 3 More 18 USC 924 - Firearms; Penalties 6 5 3 13 More 18 USC 1956 - Laundering of monetary instruments 6 5 18 6 More 18 USC 1961 - RICO - definitions 4 7 - - More 18 USC 3583 - Term of supervised release after imprisonment 4 7 33 36 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 3 9 18 16 More 18 USC 401 - Power of Court 2 10 39 - More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 2 10 13 26 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 "Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US" under Title 46 U.S.C Section 70503.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 633.3 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 46 U.S.C Section 70503 that involves " Possession control substance on vessel subject to jurisdiction of US ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—900 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Term of supervised release after imprisonment " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 3583 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 84.6 percent—was Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 50 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 445.6 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 Dakota 3,896 21 1 70 54 More Alaska 2,979 17 2 77 73 More Ill, S 2,826 30 3 39 29 More Ark, W 1,577 17 4 53 76 More Kansas 1,575 37 5 43 24 More Ala, S 1,454 10 6 73 52 More Ark, E 1,203 16 7 20 67 More N Mexico 1,194 20 8 5 6 More Fla, S 1,062 59 9 4 3 More Texas, E 1,053 31 10 10 14 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of North Dakota—with 3896 prosecutions as compared with 445.6 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during March 2012.
The District of Alaska ranked 2nd.
Southern District of Illinois (East St. Louis) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock), now ranked 7th , and Southern District of Illinois (East St. Louis) at 3rd In the same order, these districts ranked 20th and 39th one year ago and 67th and 29th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 195.8 percent—was North Dakota . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 575 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— 25.3 percent—was New Mexico . But over the past five years, Southern District of Florida (Miami) showed the largest drop— 30.1 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 March 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Dominguez, Daniel R. Puer Rico 79 1 604 502 More Cerezo, Carmen Consuelo Puer Rico 42 2 136 149 More Gilbert, John Phil Ill, S 26 3 275 172 More Pechman, Marsha J. Wash, W 26 3 449 10 More Hendren, Jimm Larry Ark, W 17 5 147 149 More Titus, Roger W. Maryland 16 6 92 - More Belot, Monti L. Kansas 14 7 449 329 More Erickson, Ralph R. N Dakota 14 7 100 19 More Junell, Robert A. Texas, W 14 7 1 2 More Moses, Alia Texas, W 13 10 5 - More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 4 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 6 judges were from other districts.
Judge Daniel R. Dominguez in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 1st with 79 defendants in cases.
Judge Carmen Consuelo Cerezo in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 2nd with 42 defendants in cases.
Judges John Phil Gilbert in the Southern District of Illinois (East St. Louis) and Marsha J. Pechman in the Western District of Washington (Seattle) ranked 3rd with 26 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: June 11, 2012
