Eastern District of Louisiana

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 324
Noncitizens, FY2025: 20%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 319
Detained, FY2025: 63.9%

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	86%279	279
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	3%9	9
Probation only	10%32	32
Fine only	<1%1	1

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 66 months (mean 85) for the 282 sentenced to prison, 1 of them to life; 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
Drug Trafficking	32%103	103
Firearms	24%79	79
Immigration	14%45	45
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	13%43	43
Child Pornography	4%12	12
Administration of Justice	3%9	9
Robbery	3%8	8
Sex Abuse	2%7	7
Assault	2%6	6
Money Launder	1%4	4
Murder	1%3	3
Stalking/Harassing	1%2	2
Arson	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
Other	<1%1	1

All 324 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	88	115	62	56	117	83	111	103
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	58	44	39	62	78	85	70	43
Firearms	28	27	21	27	37	78	87	79
Immigration	39	40	22	8	6	10	13	45
Robbery	13	14	9	11	13	11	16	8
Tax	11	3	2	5	8	14	3	0
Child Pornography	7	7	2	5	5	3	3	12
Administration of Justice	6	4	3	5	6	3	6	9
Murder	7	5	2	6	4	6	7	3
Bribery/Corruption	7	3	2	4	8	5	0	0
Environmental	1	5	10	5	3	3	0	0
Money Launder	3	2	0	2	3	2	11	4
Assault	0	2	0	2	3	10	3	6
Sex Abuse	3	1	0	1	0	6	7	7
Other	1	15	5	0	0	0	0	1
Individual Rights	0	0	2	2	2	6	0	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	3	2	2	1	4	0	0
Stalking/Harassing	0	0	0	0	1	1	3	2
Commercialized Vice	0	2	0	0	3	1	0	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	1	0	0	2	0	0	0
Arson	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Extortion/Racketeering	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Kidnapping	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Drug Possession	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	275	294	184	205	300	331	342	324

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	80%258	258
Not a U.S. citizen	20%65	65
Citizenship not known	<1%1	1

45 of the 324 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	62%202	202
Hispanic, 1 placed by CrimeDB	21%69	69
White+MENA, 1 placed by CrimeDB	13%43	43
Asian+NHPI, 3 placed by CrimeDB	3%8	8
Race unknown	1%2	2

Race and Hispanic origin as each person told the probation officer
Race recorded without ethnicity: split by the source's own recorded Hispanic share of each race

All 324 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. USSC recorded a race and no Hispanic origin for 5 people in FY2025: each keeps that race, and CrimeDB placed only their Hispanic origin, the lighter part.

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025

People sentenced by criminal history category, FY2025
I	44%141	141
II	14%46	46
III	14%44	44
IV	9%28	28
V	8%26	26
VI	12%38	38
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 324 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	63%204	204
Above the range	5%16	16
Below the range, government-sponsored	13%42	42
Below the range, not government-sponsored	19%61	61
Not known or not comparable	<1%1	1

All 324 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	319	204	115	63.9%	36.1%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	249	153	96	61.4%	38.6%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	226	133	93	58.8%	41.2%

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 Eastern District of Louisiana, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	408	308	58	42	26
FY2003	502	427	63	12	31
FY2004	383	303	58	22	28
FY2005	399	322	42	35	20
FY2006	370	283	77	10	66
FY2007	424	349	71	4	57
FY2008	480	390	90	0	69
FY2009	440	377	62	1	48
FY2010	414	353	60	1	40
FY2011	347	292	54	1	25
FY2012	361	297	64	0	42
FY2013	323	272	51	0	29
FY2014	313	253	56	4	34
FY2015	389	270	118	1	76
FY2016	341	281	59	1	38
FY2017	357	276	77	4	49
FY2018	275	207	68	0	39
FY2019	294	211	82	1	40
FY2020	184	134	46	4	22
FY2021	205	180	24	1	8
FY2022	300	271	29	0	6
FY2023	331	306	24	1	10
FY2024	342	309	33	0	13
FY2025	324	258	65	1	45

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 Eastern District of Louisiana, 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	408	303	11	14	42	0	38	85%	0
FY2003*	502	376	15	28	71	2	10	79%	2
FY2004	383	300	4	18	37	6	18	83%	1
FY2005*	399	295	9	24	53	1	17	80%	1
FY2006	370	291	15	17	41	0	6	84%	1
FY2007	424	358	7	24	30	0	5	87%	3
FY2008*	480	388	7	34	51	0	0	82%	1
FY2009	440	331	13	33	63	0	0	78%	2
FY2010*	414	307	15	34	58	0	0	78%	2
FY2011	347	267	7	31	42	0	0	79%	2
FY2012	361	295	3	24	39	0	0	83%	5
FY2013	323	242	6	19	56	0	0	77%	0
FY2014	313	244	6	17	46	0	0	80%	3
FY2015	389	318	2	23	46	0	0	82%	6
FY2016	341	264	2	19	54	2	0	78%	9
FY2017	357	290	4	12	50	1	0	82%	15
FY2018	275	226	8	11	29	1	0	85%	3
FY2019*	294	239	5	13	37	0	0	83%	4
FY2020	184	141	4	11	25	3	0	79%	0
FY2021	205	149	5	5	44	2	0	75%	0
FY2022	300	233	4	15	48	0	0	79%	0
FY2023	331	257	3	5	66	0	0	79%	4
FY2024*	342	285	1	14	41	1	0	84%	0
FY2025	324	279	3	9	32	1	0	87%	1

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 Eastern District of Louisiana, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	51	33	369	60	38	313
FY2003*	52	30	492	65	43	391
FY2004	56	33	365	67	46	304
FY2005*	54	30	382	67	46	303
FY2006	46	24	363	54	33	306
FY2007	65	42	419	75	53	364
FY2008*	64	37	480	77	52	394
FY2009	57	28	440	73	48	343
FY2010*	58	27	414	74	46	321
FY2011	66	37	347	83	60	271
FY2012	76	42	361	93	60	293
FY2013	59	33	323	77	54	245
FY2014	59	30	313	76	42	244
FY2015	61	22	389	77	36	304
FY2016	72	30	341	98	60	250
FY2017	74	30	357	94	60	278
FY2018	63	36	275	74	47	234
FY2019*	58	30	294	69	50	244
FY2020	43	20	184	54	36	145
FY2021	63	37	205	84	60	154
FY2022	69	51	300	87	70	237
FY2023	77	42	331	97	65	260
FY2024*	66	49	342	79	60	286
FY2025	74	60	324	85	66	282

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 Eastern District of Louisiana by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	142	213	137	159	95	184	183	154
Firearms	60	86	72	56	63	64	79	49
Fraud	43	30	47	43	33	28	47	78
Immigration	26	31	28	20	66	57	69	48
Larceny	14	31	19	16	25	17	19	24
Administration of Justice	9	14	10	12	27	11	15	14
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	5	12	7	9	10	9	16	23
Robbery	14	13	10	14	6	10	11	5
Forgery/Counterfeiting	11	15	8	17	5	6	5	1
Tax Offenses	13	3	4	5	3	6	8	2
Racketeering/Extortion	2	13	0	9	7	1	6	5
Pornography/Prostitution	3	6	3	5	3	5	6	8
Drugs - Communication Facilities	7	7	2	3	0	2	3	12
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	3	3	3	2	2	2	4
Bribery	2	1	1	0	3	1	4	6
Embezzlement	4	3	2	4	2	1	1	1
Assault	0	1	1	1	4	4	1	5
Auto Theft	1	8	0	2	0	1	1	0
Money Laundering	3	3	1	1	2	2	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	2	5	2	1	0
Arson	2	1	0	0	1	3	1	0
Food and Drug Offenses	1	0	3	0	0	1	0	1
Murder	3	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Prison Offenses	0	1	2	0	0	1	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Offense type not known	42	7	22	17	5	4	0	0
All offenses	408	502	383	399	370	424	480	440

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 Eastern District of Louisiana by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	127	117	125	104	116	135	119	132
Fraud	105	69	62	73	54	69	70	61
Immigration	40	25	42	29	34	76	38	49
Firearms	39	48	45	42	33	34	30	34
Administration of Justice	11	14	22	16	17	8	10	11
Larceny	28	16	8	12	12	8	13	7
Child Pornography	12	9	7	6	11	12	12	11
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	14	9	11	4	3	9	17	4
Robbery	7	3	6	2	1	5	4	6
Tax Offenses	2	4	3	6	2	7	5	4
Bribery	8	3	4	5	7	0	2	3
Forgery/Counterfeiting	3	4	8	5	3	6	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	2	5	1	3	3	6	8
Racketeering/Extortion	1	1	3	2	3	0	3	14
Money Laundering	3	0	2	5	1	4	3	0
Assault	5	2	2	3	0	2	2	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	2	2	1	0	5	5	0	1
Embezzlement	0	4	0	3	3	0	0	3
Food and Drug Offenses	2	1	0	2	1	1	0	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	2	0	2	1	0	0	2
Gambling/Lottery	0	6	1	0	0	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	4
Sexual Abuse	0	0	1	1	0	2	2	1
Civil Rights Offenses	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	0
Arson	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Prison Offenses	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	414	347	361	323	313	389	341	357

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 Eastern District of Louisiana by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	103	32%
Firearms	79	24%
Immigration	45	14%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	43	13%
Child Pornography	12	4%
Administration of Justice	9	3%
Robbery	8	3%
Sex Abuse	7	2%
Assault	6	2%
Money Launder	4	1%
Murder	3	1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	1%
Arson	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
Other	1	<1%

All 324 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 Eastern District of Louisiana by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	202	0	62%
Hispanic	69	1	21%
White+MENA	43	1	13%
Asian+NHPI	8	3	3%
Race unknown	2	0	1%

All 324 people sentenced.

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

USSC recorded a race and no Hispanic origin for 5 people in FY2025: each keeps that race, and CrimeDB placed only their Hispanic origin, the lighter part.

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

Of which placed by CrimeDB: the part of each group CrimeDB placed (race recorded without ethnicity: split by the source's own recorded Hispanic share of each race); the rest of each group is as USSC recorded it.

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

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	141	44%
II	46	14%
III	44	14%
IV	28	9%
V	26	8%
VI	38	12%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 324 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 Eastern District of Louisiana against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	204	63%
Above the range	16	5%
Below the range, government-sponsored	42	13%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	61	19%
Not known or not comparable	1	<1%

All 324 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 Eastern District of Louisiana, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	356	241	115	67.7%	32.3%
FY2007	522	347	175	66.5%	33.5%
FY2008	444	261	183	58.8%	41.2%
FY2009	437	258	179	59.0%	41.0%
FY2010	432	250	182	57.9%	42.1%
FY2011	330	227	103	68.8%	31.2%
FY2012	341	198	143	58.1%	41.9%
FY2013	384	219	165	57.0%	43.0%
FY2014	403	264	139	65.5%	34.5%
FY2015	390	199	191	51.0%	49.0%
FY2016	303	171	132	56.4%	43.6%
FY2017	262	184	78	70.2%	29.8%
FY2018	296	174	122	58.8%	41.2%
FY2019	305	202	103	66.2%	33.8%
FY2020	208	121	87	58.2%	41.8%
FY2021	248	101	147	40.7%	59.3%
FY2022	358	212	146	59.2%	40.8%
FY2023	298	195	103	65.4%	34.6%
FY2024	346	223	123	64.5%	35.5%
FY2025	319	204	115	63.9%	36.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	284	170	114	59.9%	40.1%
FY2007	474	299	175	63.1%	36.9%
FY2008	397	215	182	54.2%	45.8%
FY2009	402	224	178	55.7%	44.3%
FY2010	402	220	182	54.7%	45.3%
FY2011	303	200	103	66.0%	34.0%
FY2012	311	168	143	54.0%	46.0%
FY2013	365	200	165	54.8%	45.2%
FY2014	360	221	139	61.4%	38.6%
FY2015	331	140	191	42.3%	57.7%
FY2016	260	129	131	49.6%	50.4%
FY2017	209	134	75	64.1%	35.9%
FY2018	269	147	122	54.6%	45.4%
FY2019	264	164	100	62.1%	37.9%
FY2020	186	104	82	55.9%	44.1%
FY2021	245	98	147	40.0%	60.0%
FY2022	343	207	136	60.3%	39.7%
FY2023	280	185	95	66.1%	33.9%
FY2024	319	212	107	66.5%	33.5%
FY2025	249	153	96	61.4%	38.6%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	323	200	123	61.9%	38.1%
FY2023	266	178	88	66.9%	33.1%
FY2024	308	205	103	66.6%	33.4%
FY2025	226	133	93	58.8%	41.2%

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