Prosecutions for March 2012
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during March 2012 the government reported 1326 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 up 24.7% 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 (-5 percent). Prosecutions over the past year are still much higher than they were five years ago. Overall, the data show that prosecutions of this type are up 5.8 percent from levels reported in 2007.
The leveling out in these cases is partly related to increases in the matters filed in U.S. Magistrate Courts. If magistrate cases are excluded and only Federal District Court cases are counted, the overall increase in prosecutions is 3.9 percent instead of 5.8 percent. The evidence suggests that part of the difference may be the result of improvements in the recording of the magistrate cases by the Justice Department.
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 March 2012 was for "Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen", accounting for 22.3 percent of prosecutions. Prosecutions were also filed for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking" (13.3%), " Bank Robbery" (7.3%), "Project Safe Childhood" (6.6%), "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (6%), "Fraud-Health Care" (3.9%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (3.5%), "Violence-Other" (3.2%), "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (3.1%), "Fraud-Mortgage" (2.9%) , "Violence-Indian Country" (2.8%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (2.6%), "Fraud-Other" (2.4%). See Figure 2.
Prosecutions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In March 2012, 241 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 14.5 percent of all magistrate filings in March.
Other frequently prosecuted lead charges include: "21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy" (11.6%), "18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes" (7.9%), "18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television" (7.5%).
Prosecutions in U.S. District Courts
In March 2012, 1085 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during March there were an additional 134 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 Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 116 1 1 3 More 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 109 2 2 2 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 105 3 3 1 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 46 4 11 8 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 46 4 7 6 More 18 USC 1347 - Health Care Fraud 44 6 14 16 More 18 USC 922 - Firearms; Unlawful acts 41 7 9 11 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 39 8 5 5 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 30 9 8 7 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 29 10 10 9 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 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 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 2 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 prosecutions—up 20.9 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 21 U.S.C Section 841 that involves " Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—94.4 percent—was registered for prosecutions 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 prosecutions compared to one year ago—down 19.8 percent—was Hobbs Act (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1951 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in prosecutions— 26.7 percent—was for filings where the lead charge was " Bank robbery and incidental crimes " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In March 2012 the Justice Department said the government brought 476.5 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 D. C. 8,605 43 1 18 68 More Montana 3,077 25 2 22 24 More Wyoming 2,425 11 3 74 84 More Tenn, W 2,394 31 4 57 9 More S Dakota 1,625 11 5 42 20 More N. Y., S 1,379 59 6 1 5 More Miss, S 1,172 18 7 71 56 More N Dakota 1,113 6 8 65 60 More Hawaii 1,112 12 9 61 71 More Texas, W 1,076 55 10 9 12 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington)—with 8605 prosecutions as compared with 476.5 prosecutions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during March 2012.
The District of Montana ranked 2nd.
District of Wyoming is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Washington, D.C. (Washington), now ranked 1st , and Montana at 2nd In the same order, these districts ranked 18th and 22nd one year ago and 68th and 24th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of prosecutions compared to one year ago— 85.3 percent—was Western District of Tennessee (Memphis). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 336.4 percent—was Washington, D.C. (Washington).
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of prosecutions— 26.2 percent—was Montana . But over the past five years, Western District of Tennessee (Memphis) showed the largest drop— 53.3 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 Sullivan, Emmet G. D. C. 29 1 552 678 More Spatt, Arthur Donald N. Y., E 23 2 713 455 More Cardone, Kathleen Texas, W 16 3 13 254 More Yeakel, Earl Leroy, III Texas, W 14 4 406 207 More DeGiusti, Timothy D. Okla, W 13 5 286 678 More Sparks, Sam Texas, W 13 5 552 33 More Thompson, Alvin W. Conn 12 7 552 384 More Cebull, Richard F. Montana 12 7 26 36 More Breen, J. Daniel Tenn, W 12 7 552 9 More Shadid, James Edward Ill, C 10 10 713 - More Reeves, Carlton Wayne Miss, S 10 10 - - More Haddon, Sam E. Montana 10 10 7 33 More Adams, John R. Ohio, N 10 10 134 155 More McCalla, Jon Phipps Tenn, W 10 10 406 87 More Table 4: Top 10 judges
A total of 9 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 5 judges were from other districts. (Because of ties, there were a total of 14 judges in the "top ten" rankings.)
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in the District of Washington, D.C. (Washington) ranked 1st with 29 defendants in cases.
Judge Arthur Donald Spatt in the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn) ranked 2nd with 23 defendants in cases.
Judge Kathleen Cardone in the Western District of Texas (San Antonio) ranked 3rd with 16 defendants in cases.
Report Generated: June 11, 2012
