District of Delaware

A U.S. district court in the Third Circuit, in Delaware. Its figures are federal cases and are never added to Delaware's.

People sentenced, FY2025: 149
Noncitizens, FY2025: 48%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 159
Detained, FY2025: 77.4%

Federal sentences

People sentenced in this court under the federal guidelines, by federal fiscal year (October to September), counted by CrimeDB from the Sentencing Commission's records. Dashed lines mark changes in federal sentencing law.

People sentenced, FY2002 to FY2025

FY2003: PROTECT Act, April 30, 2003: appeals courts review departures from the guidelines anew, and the Commission must cut downward departures.
FY2005: United States v. Booker, January 12, 2005: the guidelines become advisory, so FY2005 holds sentences from before and after.
FY2008: Gall and Kimbrough, December 10, 2007: judges may sentence outside the range with less reason given, including over the crack to powder ratio.
FY2010: Fair Sentencing Act, August 3, 2010: crack cocaine thresholds rise and the crack to powder ratio falls from 100 to 1 to about 18 to 1.
FY2019: First Step Act, December 21, 2018: a wider safety valve, no more stacked gun counts, and the crack changes made retroactive.
FY2024: Guideline amendments of November 1, 2023: fewer criminal history points for offenses committed under supervision, and a lower range for people with none.

Sentence type and length, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
Prison only	96%143	143
Prison and alternatives	1%1	1
Probation and alternatives	1%1	1
Probation only	3%4	4

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 9 months (mean 43) for the 144 sentenced to prison; life and anything over 470 months count as 470, as the Commission counts them.

Percent sentenced to prison, FY2002 to FY2025

Median prison term in months, FY2002 to FY2025

FY2018: From FY2018 the Commission counts a sentence of time served with no amount given as one day of prison; before, it left those out of the prison term. Counted that way, FY2017's national median prison term would be 24 months, not 27.

People sentenced by offense, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
Immigration	44%66	66
Drug Trafficking	22%33	33
Firearms	9%13	13
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	7%10	10
Child Pornography	4%6	6
Money Launder	3%5	5
Robbery	3%5	5
Sex Abuse	3%4	4
Tax	3%4	4
Kidnapping	1%2	2
Commercialized Vice	1%1	1

All 149 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Immigration	15	38	32	4	16	28	29	66
Drug Trafficking	16	35	35	24	22	30	32	33
Firearms	12	18	4	13	18	25	14	13
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	11	17	2	5	6	2	4	10
Sex Abuse	7	1	0	1	7	3	1	4
Tax	3	1	2	0	2	5	2	4
Money Launder	1	1	0	0	2	2	7	5
Child Pornography	2	4	1	1	2	0	1	6
Robbery	2	1	1	2	0	2	2	5
Administration of Justice	2	0	4	0	2	1	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	3	3	1	0
Stalking/Harassing	0	1	3	1	1	0	1	0
Bribery/Corruption	3	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
Environmental	3	1	1	0	0	1	0	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	0
Prison Offenses	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Arson	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Individual Rights	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
All offenses	77	122	89	52	81	104	95	149

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

Earlier years, under the Commission's older offense types, are in the tables at the foot of the page.

People sentenced by citizenship, FY2025

Share of people sentenced
U.S. citizen	52%77	77
Not a U.S. citizen	48%72	72
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

66 of the 149 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Hispanic	54%81	81
Black	32%48	48
White+MENA	13%20	20

All 149 people sentenced. Race and Hispanic origin as each person told the probation officer. Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people.

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025
I	57%85	85
II	17%25	25
III	11%17	17
IV	7%10	10
V	4%6	6
VI	4%6	6

All 149 people sentenced. By the category the court found, I (least) to VI (most), from points for prior sentences under the guidelines.

Sentences against the guideline range, FY2025

Sentences against the guideline range, FY2025
Within the range	62%93	93
Above the range	1%1	1
Below the range, government-sponsored	26%39	39
Below the range, not government-sponsored	11%16	16

All 149 people sentenced. In the Commission's four groups. Government-sponsored: the prosecutor moved for it, for substantial assistance, early disposition, or another reason.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Pretrial release and detention

Defendants whose pretrial services case opened in the fiscal year, and the percent detained and never released before trial, as U.S. Courts prints them. Table H-14 counts every case, H-14A leaves out immigration cases, and H-14B, from FY2022, leaves out the cases U.S. Courts classes as illegal alien cases.

Percent detained, all cases (H-14), FY2006 to FY2025

Pretrial release and detention, FY2025

Which cases	Table	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
All cases	H-14	159	123	36	77.4%	22.6%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	86	50	36	58.1%	41.9%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	84	49	35	58.3%	41.7%

Detained: detained and never released before trial, as U.S. Courts prints it.

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B.

Every figure as a table

People sentenced in the District of Delaware, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	85	71	14	0	5
FY2003	153	138	15	0	8
FY2004	116	94	19	3	14
FY2005	145	122	22	1	12
FY2006	101	69	29	3	17
FY2007	107	80	26	1	25
FY2008	146	119	27	0	21
FY2009	159	132	27	0	21
FY2010	131	110	21	0	16
FY2011	121	89	30	2	12
FY2012	93	73	20	0	13
FY2013	102	77	25	0	14
FY2014	97	80	16	1	9
FY2015	90	73	17	0	9
FY2016	72	63	9	0	7
FY2017	84	61	23	0	11
FY2018	77	57	20	0	15
FY2019	122	77	45	0	38
FY2020	89	48	41	0	32
FY2021	52	40	12	0	4
FY2022	81	62	19	0	16
FY2023	104	68	36	0	28
FY2024	95	56	39	0	29
FY2025	149	77	72	0	66

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Immigration offenses are the Commission's offense type for the year (OFFTYPE2 to FY2009, OFFTYPSB to FY2017, OFFGUIDE from FY2018).

Sentence type in the District of Delaware, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	Prison only	Prison and alternatives	Probation and alternatives	Probation only	Fine only	Type not known	Sentenced to prison	Life sentences
FY2002	85	61	3	7	13	0	1	76%	0
FY2003*	153	100	1	19	29	4	0	66%	0
FY2004	116	71	2	6	22	12	3	65%	0
FY2005*	145	115	1	8	18	2	1	81%	0
FY2006	101	79	2	4	14	2	0	80%	0
FY2007	107	73	1	5	28	0	0	69%	0
FY2008*	146	125	5	4	11	0	1	90%	0
FY2009	159	139	5	4	11	0	0	91%	0
FY2010*	131	116	2	1	10	2	0	90%	0
FY2011	121	101	3	5	12	0	0	86%	0
FY2012	93	74	4	4	11	0	0	84%	1
FY2013	102	82	1	4	14	1	0	81%	0
FY2014	97	83	5	1	8	0	0	91%	0
FY2015	90	84	1	1	4	0	0	94%	0
FY2016	72	62	3	1	5	1	0	90%	3
FY2017	84	78	3	0	3	0	0	96%	0
FY2018	77	65	3	3	6	0	0	88%	0
FY2019*	122	115	0	3	4	0	0	94%	0
FY2020	89	79	4	2	4	0	0	93%	0
FY2021	52	46	2	2	2	0	0	92%	0
FY2022	81	75	1	2	3	0	0	94%	0
FY2023	104	97	0	4	3	0	0	93%	1
FY2024*	95	87	0	3	5	0	0	92%	0
FY2025	149	143	1	1	4	0	0	97%	0

USSC's sentence types (SENTIMP). Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. Sentenced to prison: prison only, or prison and alternatives, of those whose type is known.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

Sentence length in the District of Delaware, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	30	21	84	39	30	64
FY2003*	29	15	153	43	30	101
FY2004	26	9	113	41	30	72
FY2005*	50	30	144	63	48	115
FY2006	48	30	101	60	48	80
FY2007	37	12	107	56	36	70
FY2008*	43	30	145	48	36	128
FY2009	45	24	159	51	30	141
FY2010*	51	30	131	59	36	114
FY2011	40	27	121	46	36	102
FY2012	43	24	93	53	36	75
FY2013	48	29	102	59	44	82
FY2014	46	33	97	54	37	82
FY2015	43	31	90	49	39	80
FY2016	54	27	72	64	36	61
FY2017	45	36	84	50	36	75
FY2018	47	23	77	53	29	68
FY2019*	38	21	122	40	24	115
FY2020	34	12	89	36	13	83
FY2021	55	49	52	59	58	48
FY2022	64	36	81	68	40	76
FY2023	50	27	104	53	35	97
FY2024*	43	20	95	46	24	87
FY2025	41	8	149	43	9	144

Sentence: prison and alternative confinement, with probation and fines as zero (USSC's sentence length). Prison term: prison alone, for those sentenced to prison (USSC's length of imprisonment). Life and anything over 470 months count as 470, as USSC counts them.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

FY2018: From FY2018 the Commission counts a sentence of time served with no amount given as one day of prison; before, it left those out of the prison term. Counted that way, FY2017's national median prison term would be 24 months, not 27.

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Firearms	24	45	22	47	21	16	45	64
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	20	30	17	24	35	15	23	31
Fraud	11	22	22	19	6	16	20	23
Immigration	5	8	14	12	17	25	21	21
Larceny	4	17	8	11	2	15	6	1
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	3	0	1	7	7	2	7
Pornography/Prostitution	2	0	0	2	1	1	18	6
Robbery	2	5	8	7	0	1	1	0
Tax Offenses	2	0	3	8	4	3	3	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	7	11	3	1	0	1	0
Embezzlement	1	3	0	5	3	4	1	0
Money Laundering	2	3	0	1	1	2	1	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	3	5	0	0	0	0	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	0	1	1	1	0	0	2	2
Administration of Justice	2	2	1	1	0	0	0	0
Assault	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	1
Auto Theft	0	2	2	1	0	0	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	1
Food and Drug Offenses	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0
Arson	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	85	153	116	145	101	107	146	159

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFTYPE2). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	36	27	16	30	32	33	24	39
Firearms	35	30	22	19	14	20	14	14
Fraud	22	14	7	14	8	13	9	9
Immigration	16	12	13	14	9	9	7	11
Child Pornography	5	8	8	2	7	4	2	3
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	1	4	8	5	1	2	1	1
Administration of Justice	4	3	3	3	2	1	0	2
Tax Offenses	1	5	2	1	5	1	2	0
Larceny	1	2	8	2	0	0	2	1
Robbery	0	0	0	2	4	2	2	3
Money Laundering	1	3	4	0	2	0	1	1
National Defense Offenses	1	5	0	1	0	2	1	0
Sexual Abuse	2	1	1	4	2	0	0	0
Assault	0	0	0	2	0	1	3	0
Embezzlement	1	1	1	1	1	0	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	3	0	0	0	2	0	1	0
Forgery/Counterfeiting	1	5	0	0	0	0	0	0
Racketeering/Extortion	0	0	0	2	4	0	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	3	1	0	0
Bribery	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Prison Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	131	121	93	102	97	90	72	84

By the Commission's offense type for these years (OFFTYPSB). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

* A change in federal sentencing law took effect in this fiscal year (listed under the timeline).

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Immigration	66	44%
Drug Trafficking	33	22%
Firearms	13	9%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	10	7%
Child Pornography	6	4%
Money Launder	5	3%
Robbery	5	3%
Sex Abuse	4	3%
Tax	4	3%
Kidnapping	2	1%
Commercialized Vice	1	1%

All 149 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline). Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
Hispanic	81	54%
Black	48	32%
White+MENA	20	13%

All 149 people sentenced.

Hispanic is of any race; the other groups are not Hispanic. White+MENA includes Middle Eastern and North African people.

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

People sentenced in the District of Delaware by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	85	57%
II	25	17%
III	17	11%
IV	10	7%
V	6	4%
VI	6	4%

All 149 people sentenced.

The category the court found (XCRHISSR), I (least) to VI (most).

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Sentences in the District of Delaware against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	93	62%
Above the range	1	1%
Below the range, government-sponsored	39	26%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	16	11%

All 149 people sentenced.

The Commission's four groups (SENTRNGE collapsed as its Sourcebook does).

Source: U.S. Sentencing Commission, individual offender datafiles, counted by CrimeDB.

Pretrial release and detention in the District of Delaware, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	144	69	75	47.9%	52.1%
FY2007	204	120	84	58.8%	41.2%
FY2008	195	131	64	67.2%	32.8%
FY2009	155	102	53	65.8%	34.2%
FY2010	119	85	34	71.4%	28.6%
FY2011	138	74	64	53.6%	46.4%
FY2012	111	82	29	73.9%	26.1%
FY2013	145	109	36	75.2%	24.8%
FY2014	86	62	24	72.1%	27.9%
FY2015	76	50	26	65.8%	34.2%
FY2016	97	72	25	74.2%	25.8%
FY2017	89	60	29	67.4%	32.6%
FY2018	113	84	29	74.3%	25.7%
FY2019	123	93	30	75.6%	24.4%
FY2020	78	62	16	79.5%	20.5%
FY2021	73	36	37	49.3%	50.7%
FY2022	106	79	27	74.5%	25.5%
FY2023	120	87	33	72.5%	27.5%
FY2024	93	76	17	81.7%	18.3%
FY2025	159	123	36	77.4%	22.6%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.

Pretrial release and detention in the District of Delaware, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	129	58	71	45.0%	55.0%
FY2007	179	107	72	59.8%	40.2%
FY2008	173	115	58	66.5%	33.5%
FY2009	135	87	48	64.4%	35.6%
FY2010	105	71	34	67.6%	32.4%
FY2011	128	64	64	50.0%	50.0%
FY2012	97	68	29	70.1%	29.9%
FY2013	133	97	36	72.9%	27.1%
FY2014	76	52	24	68.4%	31.6%
FY2015	73	47	26	64.4%	35.6%
FY2016	84	59	25	70.2%	29.8%
FY2017	79	50	29	63.3%	36.7%
FY2018	93	64	29	68.8%	31.2%
FY2019	81	51	30	63.0%	37.0%
FY2020	57	41	16	71.9%	28.1%
FY2021	71	34	37	47.9%	52.1%
FY2022	79	53	26	67.1%	32.9%
FY2023	95	63	32	66.3%	33.7%
FY2024	66	49	17	74.2%	25.8%
FY2025	86	50	36	58.1%	41.9%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.

Pretrial release and detention in the District of Delaware, excluding illegal alien cases (Table H-14B)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	76	49	27	64.5%	35.5%
FY2023	90	57	33	63.3%	36.7%
FY2024	63	46	17	73.0%	27.0%
FY2025	84	49	35	58.3%	41.7%

Source: U.S. Courts, Judicial Business Tables H-14, H-14A, and H-14B, as printed.