Convictions for January 2013
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during January 2013 the government reported 1130 new convictions for these matters. Those cases were referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up 26.5% 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 2013 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was up (5.8 percent). Convictions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that convictions of this type are up 15.1 percent from levels reported in 2008.
The increase 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 January 2013 was for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force", accounting for 15.1 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (13.6 %), "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (9.3%), "Bank Robbery" (8.8%), "Project Safe Childhood" (8.2%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (6.3%), "Violence-Indian Country" (4%), "Violence-Other" (4%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (3.7%), "Fraud-Health Care" (3%) , "Fraud-Mortgage" (2.4%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In January 2013, 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 January 2013, 1128 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during January 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 January.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the convictions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during January 2013referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 139 1 1 2 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 123 2 2 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 102 3 3 1 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 53 4 8 8 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 48 5 4 6 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 42 6 10 10 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 33 7 11 9 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 32 8 5 5 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 24 9 7 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 20 10 9 7 More Table 2: Top charges for convictions
"Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was the most frequent recorded lead charge. "Attempt and conspiracy" (Title 21 U.S.C Section 846) was ranked 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 2 five years ago.
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841. "Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A" under Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 was ranked 2 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 five years ago.
Ranked 3rd was "Bank robbery and incidental crimes" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113. "Bank robbery and incidental crimes" under Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 was ranked 3 a year ago, while it was ranked 1 five years ago.
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions—up 31 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1343 that involves " Fraud by wire, radio, or television ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—87 percent—was registered for convictions under " Firearms; Unlawful acts " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 922 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 22.4 percent—was Bank Fraud (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 ). This was the same statute that had the largest decrease— 37.3 %—when compared with five years ago.
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In January 2013 the Justice Department said the government obtained 440.9 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 2,986 50 1 29 44 More Montana 2,338 19 2 18 28 More S Dakota 2,216 15 3 39 21 More D. C. 2,001 10 4 39 28 More Ala, S 1,890 13 5 63 52 More Cal, S 1,714 46 6 14 43 More La, W 1,711 30 7 56 33 More N Dakota 1,484 8 8 71 59 More Alaska 1,402 8 9 65 74 More Ohio, N 1,278 62 10 7 5 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of New Mexico—with 2986 convictions as compared with 440.9 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during January 2013.
The District of Montana ranked 2nd.
District of South Dakota is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Southern District of California (San Diego), now ranked 6th , and Montana at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 14th and 18th one year ago and 43rd and 28th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 70.2 percent—was Washington, D.C. (Washington). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 236 percent—was Southern District of California (San Diego).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions— 12 percent—was Montana . But over the past five years, Southern District of Alabama (Mobile) showed the largest drop— 23.8 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 January 2013 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Huff, Marilyn L. Cal, S 21 1 533 - More Nugent, Donald C. Ohio, N 19 2 147 197 More Guirola, Louis, Jr. Miss, S 14 3 317 32 More Martinez, Jose E. Fla, S 13 4 91 32 More Greer, J. Ronnie Tenn, E 13 4 16 45 More Doherty, Rebecca F. La, W 11 6 724 732 More Quarles, William D., Jr. Maryland 10 7 262 197 More Lynn, Barbara M. Texas, N 10 7 317 416 More Legg, Benson Everett Maryland 9 9 40 236 More Wells, Lesley Brooks Ohio, N 9 9 224 197 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 convictions per capita, while the remaining 6 judges were from other districts.
Judge Marilyn L. Huff in the Southern District of California (San Diego) ranked 1st with 21 convicted in convictions.
Judge Donald C. Nugent in the Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland) ranked 2nd with 19 convicted in convictions.
Judge Louis Guirola, Jr. in the Southern District of Mississippi (Jackson) ranked 3rd with 14 convicted in convictions.
Report Generated: March 5, 2013
