Eastern District of North Carolina

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 811
Noncitizens, FY2025: 9%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 630
Detained, FY2025: 66.2%

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	72%585	585
Prison and alternatives	1%10	10
Probation and alternatives	2%16	16
Probation only	24%197	197
Fine only	<1%3	3

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 66 months (mean 87) for the 595 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
Drug Trafficking	32%262	262
Other	24%192	192
Firearms	19%157	157
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	6%47	47
Immigration	5%38	38
Robbery	3%24	24
Assault	2%16	16
Child Pornography	2%12	12
Money Launder	1%10	10
Sex Abuse	1%10	10
Stalking/Harassing	1%8	8
Prison Offenses	1%7	7
Bribery/Corruption	1%5	5
Drug Possession	1%5	5
Tax	1%4	4
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%3	3
Environmental	<1%2	2
Food and Drug	<1%2	2
National Defense	<1%2	2
Administration of Justice	<1%1	1
Arson	<1%1	1
Extortion/Racketeering	<1%1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1

All 811 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	194	332	260	332	286	341	296	262
Firearms	153	205	177	245	201	185	150	157
Other	41	35	33	27	21	93	147	192
Immigration	113	106	77	65	49	27	30	38
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	64	54	34	68	65	53	76	47
Robbery	38	39	23	44	33	33	21	24
Drug Possession	22	20	14	28	32	3	4	5
Assault	8	10	12	14	9	22	19	16
Child Pornography	12	9	11	13	10	19	18	12
Sex Abuse	11	10	7	12	10	11	10	10
Money Launder	21	6	7	5	5	14	10	10
Prison Offenses	11	9	7	7	11	6	11	7
Extortion/Racketeering	5	1	18	14	1	2	15	1
Tax	6	7	4	6	1	5	2	4
Bribery/Corruption	1	2	1	3	7	12	0	5
Stalking/Harassing	5	3	0	2	3	3	5	8
Environmental	5	0	1	9	2	1	8	2
Commercialized Vice	18	1	5	2	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	5	4	2	8	1	4	0	0
Administration of Justice	4	0	4	7	2	1	2	1
Individual Rights	1	15	2	1	1	0	0	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	2	2	4	3	2	1	3
Arson	1	1	0	4	4	2	0	1
Murder	2	1	4	0	1	4	1	0
National Defense	0	2	1	1	1	1	0	2
Burglary/Trespass	0	1	2	0	1	2	0	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	1
Food and Drug	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
Antitrust	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	744	876	708	922	761	847	827	811

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	88%714	714
Not a U.S. citizen	9%74	74
Citizenship not known	3%23	23

38 of the 811 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black, 7 placed by CrimeDB	58%472	472
White+MENA, 2 placed by CrimeDB	20%165	165
Hispanic, 2 placed by CrimeDB	17%134	134
AIAN	3%23	23
Asian+NHPI	1%4	4
Race unknown	2%13	13

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 811 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 11 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	46%373	373
II	12%94	94
III	17%141	141
IV	8%65	65
V	5%40	40
VI	10%83	83
Category not known	2%15	15

All 811 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	60%486	486
Above the range	3%20	20
Below the range, government-sponsored	24%197	197
Below the range, not government-sponsored	12%94	94
Not known or not comparable	2%14	14

All 811 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	630	417	213	66.2%	33.8%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	600	387	213	64.5%	35.5%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	568	358	210	63.0%	37.0%

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 North Carolina, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	604	530	60	14	26
FY2003	659	566	59	34	30
FY2004	590	474	75	41	33
FY2005	724	626	75	23	31
FY2006	674	550	91	33	39
FY2007	611	489	102	20	41
FY2008	692	581	80	31	51
FY2009	659	540	82	37	18
FY2010	766	600	113	53	33
FY2011	853	640	161	52	61
FY2012	816	638	121	57	47
FY2013	782	615	105	62	37
FY2014	696	567	113	16	45
FY2015	586	470	96	20	28
FY2016	651	550	88	13	39
FY2017	654	546	91	17	44
FY2018	744	588	145	11	113
FY2019	876	717	143	16	106
FY2020	708	593	109	6	77
FY2021	922	805	109	8	65
FY2022	761	681	67	13	49
FY2023	847	771	64	12	27
FY2024	827	727	82	18	30
FY2025	811	714	74	23	38

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 North Carolina, 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	604	443	16	27	105	3	10	77%	4
FY2003*	659	505	10	36	98	8	2	78%	1
FY2004	590	474	16	27	58	12	3	83%	3
FY2005*	724	585	11	33	90	5	0	82%	3
FY2006	674	561	10	26	72	5	0	85%	4
FY2007	611	494	15	23	72	7	0	83%	2
FY2008*	692	595	10	20	65	2	0	87%	1
FY2009	659	585	3	14	52	5	0	89%	4
FY2010*	766	665	3	14	79	5	0	87%	2
FY2011	853	743	11	21	74	4	0	88%	2
FY2012	816	705	6	18	77	10	0	87%	1
FY2013	782	668	8	19	80	7	0	86%	5
FY2014	696	587	4	17	82	6	0	85%	2
FY2015	586	483	8	10	79	6	0	84%	6
FY2016	651	521	2	18	94	16	0	80%	3
FY2017	654	524	5	23	99	3	0	81%	2
FY2018	744	636	3	14	85	6	0	86%	2
FY2019*	876	759	7	19	77	14	0	87%	1
FY2020	708	614	5	17	68	4	0	87%	7
FY2021	922	788	2	18	107	7	0	86%	2
FY2022	761	666	9	14	49	23	0	89%	0
FY2023	847	716	6	14	106	5	0	85%	0
FY2024*	827	624	5	16	176	6	0	76%	0
FY2025	811	585	10	16	197	3	0	73%	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 Eastern District of North Carolina, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	79	41	594	101	72	459
FY2003*	76	46	657	97	72	512
FY2004	73	47	588	88	60	483
FY2005*	80	54	724	97	72	594
FY2006	77	54	674	92	66	567
FY2007	78	57	611	94	72	508
FY2008*	94	60	692	109	78	599
FY2009	107	84	659	121	96	586
FY2010*	91	70	766	104	84	667
FY2011	88	62	853	100	78	750
FY2012	88	70	816	102	84	708
FY2013	85	60	782	99	70	668
FY2014	79	52	696	94	66	583
FY2015	67	42	586	81	60	484
FY2016	66	42	651	84	60	515
FY2017	63	36	654	79	55	515
FY2018	60	30	744	70	48	639
FY2019*	69	42	876	79	54	766
FY2020	72	47	708	82	60	619
FY2021	72	57	922	84	70	790
FY2022	72	54	761	81	63	675
FY2023	79	60	847	93	72	722
FY2024*	67	42	827	88	72	629
FY2025	64	41	811	87	66	595

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 North Carolina by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	208	192	138	230	212	172	203	233
Firearms	111	191	208	255	202	184	220	204
Fraud	43	55	44	34	64	55	66	61
Larceny	39	32	34	36	32	51	31	19
Immigration	26	30	33	31	39	41	51	18
Robbery	32	22	27	28	17	15	19	26
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	15	24	22	17	21	22	17	24
Drugs - Simple Possession	39	21	15	18	16	15	8	9
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	10	23	20	15	11	13	4
Administration of Justice	9	13	7	14	7	5	5	9
Pornography/Prostitution	6	5	6	4	9	5	11	21
Prison Offenses	10	8	4	3	3	1	11	7
Embezzlement	10	7	3	6	6	4	5	5
Money Laundering	8	13	4	1	3	4	7	4
Tax Offenses	9	5	4	4	10	5	1	5
Racketeering/Extortion	2	4	6	3	4	6	8	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	3	3	2	11	6	2	3	2
Assault	5	3	2	1	4	6	4	5
Gambling/Lottery	7	7	0	1	0	0	0	0
Sexual Abuse	3	0	4	1	2	2	1	2
Arson	3	2	0	0	0	1	3	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	1	0	3	0	1	4	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	2	4	0	0	0	2	0	0
Auto Theft	1	2	0	0	0	0	1	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Murder	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Offense type not known	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	604	659	590	724	674	611	692	659

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 North Carolina by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	245	320	307	264	209	157	176	169
Firearms	241	234	217	202	183	156	168	169
Fraud	51	76	60	69	76	66	57	65
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	32	40	46	45	37	36	55	62
Immigration	33	61	47	37	45	28	39	44
Larceny	42	30	44	31	26	22	25	17
Drugs - Simple Possession	15	14	15	13	25	40	40	31
Child Pornography	13	12	15	20	19	17	29	13
Prison Offenses	3	4	7	18	13	11	10	13
Robbery	9	8	6	19	14	10	10	3
Racketeering/Extortion	19	11	5	8	9	2	9	11
Administration of Justice	14	6	6	13	4	5	8	11
Money Laundering	15	8	7	5	5	6	6	12
Assault	8	4	8	6	6	7	5	5
Forgery/Counterfeiting	9	4	3	4	11	3	3	3
Bribery	7	1	4	5	6	5	1	3
Tax Offenses	5	4	3	3	0	7	0	2
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	3	1	5	0	2	1	8
Sexual Abuse	2	2	3	0	3	1	2	4
Arson	0	4	2	0	2	1	0	2
Embezzlement	1	3	1	4	0	0	1	1
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	5	0	1	0	1
National Defense Offenses	0	1	3	0	0	0	3	0
Murder	0	1	3	2	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	1	0	0	0	2	2	0
Civil Rights Offenses	1	0	2	1	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
Manslaughter	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Auto Theft	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	766	853	816	782	696	586	651	654

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 North Carolina by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	262	32%
Other	192	24%
Firearms	157	19%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	47	6%
Immigration	38	5%
Robbery	24	3%
Assault	16	2%
Child Pornography	12	2%
Money Launder	10	1%
Sex Abuse	10	1%
Stalking/Harassing	8	1%
Prison Offenses	7	1%
Bribery/Corruption	5	1%
Drug Possession	5	1%
Tax	4	1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	3	<1%
Environmental	2	<1%
Food and Drug	2	<1%
National Defense	2	<1%
Administration of Justice	1	<1%
Arson	1	<1%
Extortion/Racketeering	1	<1%
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%

All 811 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 North Carolina by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	472	7	58%
White+MENA	165	2	20%
Hispanic	134	2	17%
AIAN	23	0	3%
Asian+NHPI	4	0	1%
Race unknown	13	0	2%

All 811 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 11 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 North Carolina by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	373	46%
II	94	12%
III	141	17%
IV	65	8%
V	40	5%
VI	83	10%
Category not known	15	2%

All 811 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 North Carolina against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	486	60%
Above the range	20	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	197	24%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	94	12%
Not known or not comparable	14	2%

All 811 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 North Carolina, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	1,118	514	604	46.0%	54.0%
FY2007	933	400	533	42.9%	57.1%
FY2008	854	466	388	54.6%	45.4%
FY2009	919	619	300	67.4%	32.6%
FY2010	946	628	318	66.4%	33.6%
FY2011	860	563	297	65.5%	34.5%
FY2012	858	596	262	69.5%	30.5%
FY2013	801	539	262	67.3%	32.7%
FY2014	550	375	175	68.2%	31.8%
FY2015	695	489	206	70.4%	29.6%
FY2016	744	464	280	62.4%	37.6%
FY2017	697	479	218	68.7%	31.3%
FY2018	856	613	243	71.6%	28.4%
FY2019	1,022	696	326	68.1%	31.9%
FY2020	1,033	671	362	65.0%	35.0%
FY2021	923	566	357	61.3%	38.7%
FY2022	728	429	299	58.9%	41.1%
FY2023	736	462	274	62.8%	37.2%
FY2024	685	429	256	62.6%	37.4%
FY2025	630	417	213	66.2%	33.8%

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 North Carolina, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	992	389	603	39.2%	60.8%
FY2007	909	377	532	41.5%	58.5%
FY2008	817	429	388	52.5%	47.5%
FY2009	870	572	298	65.7%	34.3%
FY2010	906	588	318	64.9%	35.1%
FY2011	797	501	296	62.9%	37.1%
FY2012	806	544	262	67.5%	32.5%
FY2013	767	505	262	65.8%	34.2%
FY2014	515	340	175	66.0%	34.0%
FY2015	668	462	206	69.2%	30.8%
FY2016	704	424	280	60.2%	39.8%
FY2017	617	399	218	64.7%	35.3%
FY2018	772	533	239	69.0%	31.0%
FY2019	937	614	323	65.5%	34.5%
FY2020	969	613	356	63.3%	36.7%
FY2021	888	533	355	60.0%	40.0%
FY2022	712	413	299	58.0%	42.0%
FY2023	713	439	274	61.6%	38.4%
FY2024	653	399	254	61.1%	38.9%
FY2025	600	387	213	64.5%	35.5%

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 North Carolina, excluding illegal alien cases (Table H-14B)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	676	381	295	56.4%	43.6%
FY2023	666	397	269	59.6%	40.4%
FY2024	632	381	251	60.3%	39.7%
FY2025	568	358	210	63.0%	37.0%

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