Prosecutions for July 2009
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during July 2009 the government reported 1319 new prosecutions 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 down 4.1% 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 2009 prosecutions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of filings was up (7 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 1.7 percent from levels reported in 2004.
The leveling out 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 2009 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 22.6 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (13%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (7.9%), "Bank Robbery" (7.4%), "Project Safe Childhood" (6.6%), "Violence-Other" (4.9%), "Fraud-Health Care" (4.6%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (4.6%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (3.8%), " Fraud-Financial Institution" (3.2%), "Violence-Indian Country" (2.7%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2009, 251 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 18 U.S.C Section 2113 involving the "Bank robbery and incidental crimes". This was the lead charge for 13.1 percent of all magistrate filings in July.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "18 USC 1073 - Flight to avoid prosecution or giving testimony" (9.2%), "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (6.8%), "21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A" (6 %).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In July 2009, 1068 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during July there were an additional 153 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 2009referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 170 1 3 2 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 97 2 1 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 95 3 2 1 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 62 4 4 7 More 18 USC 1347 - Health Care Fraud 53 5 13 16 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 35 6 11 11 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 34 7 7 8 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 33 8 9 5 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank fraud 29 9 5 4 More 18 USC 113 - Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions 27 10 8 12 More
Table 2: Top charges filed
"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 3 a year ago, while it was the 2 most frequently invoked 5 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 1 a year ago, while it was the 3 most frequently invoked 5 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 2 a year ago, while it was the 1 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in prosecutions—up 64.3 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 846 that involves " Attempt and conspiracy ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—119.6 percent—was registered for prosecutions under " Health Care Fraud " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1347 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 34.5 percent—was Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A (Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 57.5 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Bank fraud " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1344 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In July 2009 the Justice Department said the government brought 490.4 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 S Car 2,383 86 1 11 10 More S Dakota 1,979 13 2 30 20 More Cal, S 1,661 43 3 35 50 More Wyoming 1,638 7 4 84 81 More N Dakota 1,506 8 5 68 67 More N Mexico 1,483 24 6 32 27 More La, E 1,464 17 7 34 43 More W Virg, N 1,358 10 8 75 92 More Tenn, W 1,329 17 9 54 24 More Utah 1,256 27 10 25 34 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of South Carolina—with 2383 prosecutions as compared with 490.4 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2009.
The District of South Dakota ranked 2nd.
Southern District of California (San Diego) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were South Carolina , now ranked 1st , and Utah at 10th In the same order, these districts ranked 11th and 25th one year ago and 10th and 34th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 215 percent—was Northern District of West Virginia (Wheeling). This was the same district that had the largest increase— 1160 %—when compared with five years ago.
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 17 percent—was Montana . But over the past five years, Western District of Tennessee (Memphis) showed the largest drop— 29.9 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 July 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Feess, Gary Allen Cal, C 42 1 59 392 More Larson, Stephen G. Cal, C 39 2 250 - More Moskowitz, Barry Ted Cal, S 15 3 302 532 More Alvarez, Micaela Texas, S 15 3 154 - More St. Eve, Amy J. Ill, N 11 5 45 157 More Jones, Barbara S. N. Y., S 11 5 366 344 More Nugent, Donald C. Ohio, N 11 5 154 44 More 01540 Penn, E 11 5 - - More Russell, Thomas B. Ken, W 10 9 512 392 More Mordue, Norman A. N. Y., N 10 9 512 192 More Keeley, Irene Patricia Murphy W Virg, N 10 9 50 683 More
Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 2 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 9 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 11 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Gary Allen Feess in the Central District of California (Los Angeles) ranked 1st with 42 defendants in cases.
Judge Stephen G. Larson in the Central District of California (Los Angeles) ranked 2nd with 39 defendants in cases.
Judges Barry Ted Moskowitz in the Southern District of California (San Diego) and Micaela Alvarez in the Southern District of Texas (Houston) ranked 3rd with 15 defendants in cases.
