Convictions 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 1067 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 1.6% 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 2009 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was up (2.4 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 6.6 percent from levels reported in 2004.
The leveling out 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 2009 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 11.6 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (11.4%), " Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (11.1%), "Bank Robbery" (10.3%), "Project Safe Childhood" (6.8%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (5.6%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (5.1%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (4.1%), "Violence-Indian Country" (3.5%) , "Fraud-Health Care" (3.2%), "Violence-Other" (3.1%), "Fraud-Other" (2.5%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In July 2009, n 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 2009, 1062 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 2009referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention + Control-Prohibited acts A 123 1 3 3 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 115 2 1 2 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 113 3 2 1 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 48 4 4 8 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 46 5 6 5 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 35 6 11 11 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank fraud 35 6 5 4 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 30 8 7 6 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 25 9 16 105 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 23 10 8 7 More 18 USC 1347 - Health Care Fraud 23 10 13 15 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 3 a year ago, while it was the 3 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 2nd in frequency was the lead charge "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 1 a year ago, while it was the 2 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Ranked 3rd was "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 the 1 most frequently invoked 5 years ago..
Among these top ten lead charges, the one showing the greatest increase in convictions—up 34 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 that involves " Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy ". This was the same statute that had the largest increase—1575 %—when compared with five years ago.
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 16.1 percent—was Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1341 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in convictions— 58.7 percent—was for convictions 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 obtained 426.6 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 D. C. 2,460 12 1 25 35 More S Dakota 2,131 14 2 31 25 More Mo, E 2,038 49 3 34 48 More Wyoming 1,404 6 4 61 75 More Montana 1,394 11 5 37 20 More N. Y., S 1,231 52 6 3 3 More N Mexico 1,174 19 7 30 27 More La, E 1,034 12 8 37 51 More Wisc, E 905 25 9 39 41 More Okla, W 891 14 10 36 62 More
Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington)—with 2460 convictions as compared with 426.6 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during July 2009.
The District of South Dakota ranked 2nd.
Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Washington, D.C. (Washington), now ranked 1st , and New Mexico at 7th In the same order, these districts ranked 25th and 30th one year ago and 35th and 27th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 50 percent—was South Dakota . Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 54.5 percent—was Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions— 41 percent—was Western District of Oklahoma (Oklahoma City). But over the past five years, Montana showed the largest drop— 30.7 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 2009 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank Sippel, Rodney W. Mo, E 13 1 More Skretny, William M. N. Y., W 13 1 More O`Malley, Kathleen M. Ohio, N 9 3 More Gardner, James Knoll Penn, E 9 3 More Wooten, Terry L. S Car 9 3 More Griesbach, William C. Wisc, E 9 3 More Webber, E. Richard Mo, E 8 7 More Rice, Walter Herbert Ohio, S 8 7 More Crabb, Barbara Brandriff Wisc, W 8 7 More Bell, Robert Holmes Mich, W 7 10 More Jackson, Carol E. Mo, E 7 10 More Bartle, Harvey III Penn, E 7 10 More Anderson, George Ross Jr. S Car 7 10 More Anderson, Joseph Fletcher Jr. S Car 7 10 More Stewart, Brian Theadore Utah 7 10 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 11 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 15 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judges Rodney W. Sippel in the Eastern District of Missouri (St. Louis) and William M. Skretny in the Western District of New York (Buffalo) ranked 1st with 13 convicted in convictions.
Judges Kathleen M. O'Malley in the Northern District of Ohio (Cleveland), James Knoll Gardner in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia), Terry L. Wooten in the District of South Carolina and William C. Griesbach in the Eastern District of Wisconsin ( Milwaukee) ranked 3rd with 9 convicted in convictions.
