Civil Rights Convictions for December 2023
The latest available data from the Justice Department show that during December 2023 the government reported 17 new civil rights convictions. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), this number is up from 13 the previous month.
The comparisons of the number of defendants convicted for civil rights-related offenses 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 2).
When monthly 2023 convictions of this type are compared with those of the same period in the previous year, the number of convictions was up (4.2%). 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 36.1 percent from levels reported in 2018.
Figure 1. Monthly Trends in Civil Rights Convictions
The decrease from the levels five years ago in civil rights convictions for these matters is shown more clearly in Figure 2. The vertical bars in Figure 2 represent the number of civil rights 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. To view trends year-by-year rather than month-by-month, see TRAC's annual report series for a broader picture.
Number of Defendants in Civil Rights Cases
Table 2 lists all separate cases with the number of defendants.
Case Defendant # 2023 - Ken, E (Lexington) Case: 1 1 Details 2023 - Ken, E (Lexington) Case: 1 2 Details 2023 - Puer Rico (Hayto Ray) Case: 2 1 Details 2023 - Puer Rico (Hayto Ray) Case: 2 2 Details 2023 - Ala, M (Montgomery) Case: 3 1 Details 2023 - Ala, M (Montgomery) Case: 4 1 Details 2023 - Ill, C (Springfield) Case: 5 1 Details 2023 - Ken, E (Lexington) Case: 6 1 Details 2023 - Ken, E (Lexington) Case: 7 1 Details 2023 - La, E (New Orleans) Case: 8 1 Details 2023 - La, W (Shreveport) Case: 9 1 Details 2023 - Maine (Portland) Case: 10 1 Details 2023 - Minnesota (Minneapolis) Case: 11 1 Details 2023 - N Car, E (Raleigh) Case: 12 1 Details 2023 - N. Y., E (Brooklyn) Case: 13 1 Details 2023 - Texas, S (Houston) Case: 14 1 Details 2023 - Texas, W (San Antonio) Case: 15 1 Details Table 2. Number of Defendants per Case
Report Generated: February 7, 2024
