Convictions for September 2012
Referring Agency: Federal Bureau of Investigation
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during September 2012 the government reported 1227 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 12% 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 2012 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was up (5.1 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 1.7 percent from levels reported in 2007.
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 September 2012 was for "Drugs-Drug Trafficking", accounting for 14.3 percent of convictions. Convictions were also filed for "Drugs-Organized Crime Task Force" (12.9%), " Withheld by Govt from TRAC (FOIA challen" (11.5%), "Bank Robbery" (8.5%), "Project Safe Childhood" (7.3%), "Fraud-Mortgage" (5.2%), "Fraud-Financial Institution" (4.5%), "Violence-Indian Country" (4.2%), "Violence-Other" (3.9%), "Fraud-Health Care" (3.8%) , "Weapons-Operation Triggerlock Major" (3.5%), "Other Criminal Prosecutions" (2.5%), "Organized Crime-Traditional Organization" (2.4%). See Figure 2.
Convictions in U.S. Magistrate Courts
Top Ranked Lead Charges
In September 2012, 8 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 September the most frequently cited lead charge was Title 18 U.S.C Section 113 involving the "Assaults within maritime and territorial jurisdictions". This was the lead charge for 37.5 percent of all magistrate convictions in September.
Convictions in U.S. District Courts
In September 2012, 1219 defendants in new cases for these matters were charged in the U.S. District Courts. In addition during September 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 September.
Top Ranked Lead Charges
Table 2 shows the top lead charges recorded in the convictions of matters filed in U.S. District Court during September 2012referred by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Lead Charge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago 21 USC 841 - Drug Abuse Prevention & Control-Prohibited acts A 170 1 1 3 More 21 USC 846 - Attempt and conspiracy 158 2 2 2 More 18 USC 2113 - Bank robbery and incidental crimes 103 3 3 1 More 18 USC 1343 - Fraud by wire, radio, or television 46 4 7 7 More 18 USC 2252 - Material involving sexual exploitation of minors 46 4 4 8 More 18 USC 1341 - Mail Fraud - Frauds and swindles 45 6 5 6 More 18 USC 1951 - Hobbs Act 45 6 9 9 More 18 USC 1349 - Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy 42 8 8 30 More 18 USC 371 - Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US 41 9 10 5 More 18 USC 1344 - Bank Fraud 36 10 6 4 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 1 a year ago, while it was ranked 3 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 "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 20 percent—compared to one year ago was Title 18 U.S.C Section 2252 that involves " Material involving sexual exploitation of minors ". Compared to five years ago, the largest increase—527.6 percent—was registered for convictions under " Mail Fraud - Attempt and Conspiracy " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 1349 ).
Again among the top ten lead charges, the one showing the sharpest decline in convictions compared to one year ago—down 5.3 percent—was Bank robbery and incidental crimes (Title 18 U.S.C Section 2113 ). Compared to five years ago, the most significant decline in convictions— 36.7 percent—was for convictions where the lead charge was " Conspiracy to commit offense or to defraud US " (Title 18 U.S.C Section 371 ).
Top Ranked Judicial Districts
In September 2012 the Justice Department said the government obtained 476.5 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. 3,002 15 1 34 34 More S Dakota 2,511 17 2 43 23 More Hawaii 1,853 20 3 71 42 More Ala, S 1,745 12 4 64 60 More Ark, E 1,504 20 5 63 32 More Montana 1,477 12 6 27 29 More Tenn, W 1,467 19 7 45 29 More Alaska 1,402 8 8 68 87 More N Dakota 1,299 7 9 68 57 More Nevada 1,180 26 10 42 28 More Table 3: Top 10 districts (per ten million people)
The District of Washington, D.C. (Washington)—with 3002 convictions as compared with 476.5 convictions per ten million population in the United States—was the most active during September 2012.
The District of South Dakota ranked 2nd.
District of Hawaii is now ranking 3rd.
Recent entrants to the top 10 list were Montana , now ranked 6th , and Washington, D.C. (Washington) at 1st In the same order, these districts ranked 27th and 34th one year ago and 29th and 34th five years ago.
The federal judicial district which showed the greatest growth in the rate of convictions compared to one year ago— 81.3 percent—was Eastern District of Arkansas (Little Rock). Compared to five years ago, the district with the largest growth— 162.5 percent—was Alaska .
In the last year, the judicial District Court recording the largest drop in the rate of convictions— 19.2 percent—was Alaska . But over the past five years, Hawaii showed the largest drop— 39.6 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 September 2012 are shown in Table 4.
Judge Count Rank 1yr ago 5yrs ago Delgado-Colon, Aida M. Puer Rico 60 1 14 560 More Perez-Gimenez, Juan Manuel Puer Rico 19 2 2 152 More Kaplan, Lewis A. N. Y., S 16 3 627 129 More Roberts, Victoria A. Mich, E 15 4 200 560 More Polster, Dan A. Ohio, N 12 5 200 186 More Lange, Roberto Antonio S Dakota 11 6 43 - More Seabright, J[ohn] Michael Hawaii 9 7 168 560 More Lawrence, William T. Ind, S 9 7 290 - More Yeakel, Earl Leroy, III Texas, W 9 7 548 42 More Tarnow, Arthur J. Mich, E 8 10 141 323 More Garcia-Gregory, Jay A. Puer Rico 8 10 290 560 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 convictions 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 Aida M. Delgado-Colon in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 1st with 60 convicted in convictions.
Judge Juan Manuel Perez-Gimenez in the District of Puerto Rico ranked 2nd with 19 convicted in convictions. Judge Perez-Gimenezalso appeared in the top ten rankings one year ago(ranked 2).
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) ranked 3rd with 16 convicted in convictions.
Report Generated: December 11, 2012
