Eastern District of Tennessee

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 532
Noncitizens, FY2025: 8%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 559
Detained, FY2025: 85.5%

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	95%508	508
Prison and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation only	3%17	17

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 84 months (mean 100) for the 511 sentenced to prison, 2 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	55%293	293
Firearms	20%104	104
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	5%25	25
Sex Abuse	5%24	24
Immigration	3%18	18
Money Launder	3%18	18
Child Pornography	2%13	13
Prison Offenses	1%6	6
Robbery	1%6	6
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1%5	5
Bribery/Corruption	1%4	4
Murder	1%4	4
Assault	1%3	3
Other	<1%2	2
Administration of Justice	<1%1	1
Arson	<1%1	1
Drug Possession	<1%1	1
Environmental	<1%1	1
Manslaughter	<1%1	1
Stalking/Harassing	<1%1	1
Tax	<1%1	1

All 532 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	303	371	365	343	406	346	305	293
Firearms	147	129	122	124	164	158	94	104
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	50	45	32	19	41	38	43	25
Immigration	55	115	13	5	10	8	12	18
Money Launder	11	19	16	30	47	25	22	18
Child Pornography	24	11	10	11	22	14	8	13
Sex Abuse	6	6	9	15	18	13	10	24
Robbery	14	18	6	8	18	13	7	6
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	13	10	11	10	7	5	10	5
Prison Offenses	7	7	7	7	8	6	6	6
Administration of Justice	0	1	3	2	2	0	8	1
Assault	2	1	1	1	2	2	2	3
Stalking/Harassing	3	4	1	0	3	1	1	1
Other	0	1	1	0	0	7	2	2
Bribery/Corruption	0	0	1	1	0	3	2	4
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	4	3	0	1	0	1	2	0
Tax	4	3	0	0	1	0	1	1
Drug Possession	2	2	0	2	0	1	0	1
Environmental	3	1	0	2	0	0	0	1
Kidnapping	3	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
Antitrust	0	0	0	0	1	5	0	0
Individual Rights	1	1	2	0	1	0	1	0
Manslaughter	0	0	2	0	1	1	0	1
Extortion/Racketeering	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Food and Drug	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0
Arson	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
National Defense	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Commercialized Vice	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	655	751	605	582	754	647	539	532

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	92%492	492
Not a U.S. citizen	8%40	40
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

18 of the 532 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA	56%296	296
Black	36%192	192
Hispanic	8%42	42
Asian+NHPI	<1%2	2

All 532 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	29%155	155
II	15%81	81
III	16%86	86
IV	9%50	50
V	8%40	40
VI	23%120	120

All 532 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	46%247	247
Above the range	6%29	29
Below the range, government-sponsored	34%182	182
Below the range, not government-sponsored	14%74	74

All 532 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	559	478	81	85.5%	14.5%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	537	456	81	84.9%	15.1%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	518	439	79	84.7%	15.3%

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 Tennessee, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	623	537	79	7	37
FY2003	626	496	108	22	81
FY2004	646	555	77	14	35
FY2005	653	556	93	4	24
FY2006	528	470	56	2	17
FY2007	570	492	73	5	33
FY2008	593	514	74	5	28
FY2009	652	569	78	5	38
FY2010	847	732	104	11	34
FY2011	913	845	65	3	26
FY2012	862	753	101	8	33
FY2013	817	739	76	2	38
FY2014	815	749	66	0	33
FY2015	668	604	63	1	36
FY2016	748	702	46	0	21
FY2017	639	589	49	1	23
FY2018	655	580	72	3	55
FY2019	751	622	129	0	115
FY2020	605	578	27	0	13
FY2021	582	568	14	0	5
FY2022	754	726	27	1	10
FY2023	647	607	40	0	8
FY2024	539	498	41	0	12
FY2025	532	492	40	0	18

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 Tennessee, 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	623	555	18	21	24	1	4	93%	5
FY2003*	626	545	13	31	32	4	1	89%	4
FY2004	646	558	12	18	54	4	0	88%	5
FY2005*	653	602	10	21	20	0	0	94%	9
FY2006	528	464	13	17	34	0	0	90%	2
FY2007	570	514	18	11	27	0	0	93%	2
FY2008*	593	539	11	14	29	0	0	93%	7
FY2009	652	583	21	20	28	0	0	93%	6
FY2010*	847	755	17	27	48	0	0	91%	5
FY2011	913	841	15	17	39	1	0	94%	4
FY2012	862	780	16	22	43	1	0	92%	1
FY2013	817	735	16	15	51	0	0	92%	1
FY2014	815	763	17	6	29	0	0	96%	1
FY2015	668	609	15	10	34	0	0	93%	1
FY2016	748	708	10	5	25	0	0	96%	1
FY2017	639	584	11	14	30	0	0	93%	4
FY2018	655	611	16	7	21	0	0	96%	1
FY2019*	751	713	9	10	19	0	0	96%	0
FY2020	605	573	6	7	19	0	0	96%	0
FY2021	582	552	6	6	18	0	0	96%	1
FY2022	754	716	7	4	27	0	0	96%	7
FY2023	647	608	9	9	19	2	0	95%	2
FY2024*	539	513	3	11	12	0	0	96%	2
FY2025	532	508	3	4	17	0	0	96%	2

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 Tennessee, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	66	46	619	71	57	573
FY2003*	75	46	622	85	57	552
FY2004	78	57	646	91	70	556
FY2005*	91	63	653	97	70	612
FY2006	88	60	528	97	70	477
FY2007	90	60	570	96	66	531
FY2008*	85	60	593	92	70	547
FY2009	77	56	652	84	60	598
FY2010*	78	60	847	88	63	754
FY2011	88	60	913	94	63	850
FY2012	77	57	862	84	60	781
FY2013	75	57	817	82	60	743
FY2014	76	57	815	80	60	772
FY2015	77	57	668	83	60	615
FY2016	75	60	748	79	60	709
FY2017	82	60	639	89	65	591
FY2018	79	60	655	82	63	627
FY2019*	73	60	751	76	63	722
FY2020	81	70	605	84	70	579
FY2021	85	70	582	89	72	558
FY2022	87	70	754	91	70	723
FY2023	93	77	647	98	84	617
FY2024*	94	77	539	98	81	516
FY2025	96	77	532	100	84	511

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	323	272	315	328	222	257	287	322
Firearms	107	113	125	178	137	123	133	148
Fraud	43	50	55	23	33	48	37	36
Immigration	37	81	35	24	17	33	28	38
Robbery	23	16	12	19	11	14	7	18
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	26	14	10	14	12	14	14	8
Larceny	10	15	13	11	14	7	11	11
Pornography/Prostitution	5	6	5	9	11	10	20	7
Forgery/Counterfeiting	3	6	5	8	9	12	10	11
Embezzlement	4	14	7	2	7	7	7	7
Money Laundering	6	7	9	11	8	8	1	3
Administration of Justice	8	2	10	2	9	2	7	11
Racketeering/Extortion	2	6	22	4	7	4	3	3
Tax Offenses	4	4	2	1	4	5	3	3
Drugs - Simple Possession	5	0	3	2	4	2	6	3
Assault	2	3	4	6	4	3	2	0
Prison Offenses	0	1	3	1	5	4	5	5
Arson	3	5	4	4	2	0	0	3
Auto Theft	6	3	2	2	1	4	2	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	1	1	0	0	1	3	3	4
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	4	1	5	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	2	2	0	0	1	5
Civil Rights Offenses	0	1	1	1	3	0	1	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	0	1	0	2	2	0	0
Bribery	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Antitrust Violations	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	1	3	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	623	626	646	653	528	570	593	652

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	450	493	433	386	435	334	424	330
Firearms	177	195	184	212	183	149	143	139
Fraud	62	65	65	45	39	37	40	29
Immigration	34	26	33	38	33	36	21	23
Child Pornography	24	13	20	14	22	15	27	26
Administration of Justice	7	18	21	27	21	16	21	22
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	12	24	31	32	13	16	4	11
Robbery	18	20	15	6	18	6	2	4
Forgery/Counterfeiting	12	13	21	14	8	6	11	2
Larceny	6	7	3	15	7	16	10	4
Money Laundering	6	7	6	4	6	3	5	23
Tax Offenses	5	6	4	5	6	3	4	5
Racketeering/Extortion	6	6	5	2	3	10	4	1
Sexual Abuse	5	0	2	4	5	3	8	5
Embezzlement	0	3	4	3	2	6	3	3
Assault	3	4	1	1	2	1	5	3
Prison Offenses	2	0	2	1	3	5	3	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	4	2	1	0	0	0	6	0
Auto Theft	4	3	0	2	1	1	0	1
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	1	2	3	0	1	1	0
Arson	1	0	1	0	0	2	2	3
Civil Rights Offenses	2	1	3	1	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	2	3	0	0	0	0	1	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	1	2	3	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	2	2	1	0	1
National Defense Offenses	0	0	1	0	4	0	0	1
Gambling/Lottery	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	0
Bribery	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	847	913	862	817	815	668	748	639

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 Tennessee by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	293	55%
Firearms	104	20%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	25	5%
Sex Abuse	24	5%
Immigration	18	3%
Money Launder	18	3%
Child Pornography	13	2%
Prison Offenses	6	1%
Robbery	6	1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	5	1%
Bribery/Corruption	4	1%
Murder	4	1%
Assault	3	1%
Other	2	<1%
Administration of Justice	1	<1%
Arson	1	<1%
Drug Possession	1	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%
Manslaughter	1	<1%
Stalking/Harassing	1	<1%
Tax	1	<1%

All 532 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 Tennessee by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Share
White+MENA	296	56%
Black	192	36%
Hispanic	42	8%
Asian+NHPI	2	<1%

All 532 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 Eastern District of Tennessee by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	155	29%
II	81	15%
III	86	16%
IV	50	9%
V	40	8%
VI	120	23%

All 532 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 Tennessee against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	247	46%
Above the range	29	6%
Below the range, government-sponsored	182	34%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	74	14%

All 532 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 Tennessee, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	652	404	248	62.0%	38.0%
FY2007	705	463	242	65.7%	34.3%
FY2008	719	457	262	63.6%	36.4%
FY2009	862	551	311	63.9%	36.1%
FY2010	827	510	317	61.7%	38.3%
FY2011	756	441	315	58.3%	41.7%
FY2012	687	450	237	65.5%	34.5%
FY2013	788	583	205	74.0%	26.0%
FY2014	716	534	182	74.6%	25.4%
FY2015	701	526	175	75.0%	25.0%
FY2016	580	449	131	77.4%	22.6%
FY2017	603	441	162	73.1%	26.9%
FY2018	774	645	129	83.3%	16.7%
FY2019	949	743	206	78.3%	21.7%
FY2020	599	457	142	76.3%	23.7%
FY2021	624	508	116	81.4%	18.6%
FY2022	678	550	128	81.1%	18.9%
FY2023	503	404	99	80.3%	19.7%
FY2024	512	408	104	79.7%	20.3%
FY2025	559	478	81	85.5%	14.5%

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 Tennessee, excluding immigration cases (Table H-14A)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	625	378	247	60.5%	39.5%
FY2007	675	433	242	64.1%	35.9%
FY2008	692	432	260	62.4%	37.6%
FY2009	827	518	309	62.6%	37.4%
FY2010	796	479	317	60.2%	39.8%
FY2011	739	424	315	57.4%	42.6%
FY2012	663	426	237	64.3%	35.7%
FY2013	759	554	205	73.0%	27.0%
FY2014	683	501	182	73.4%	26.6%
FY2015	674	499	175	74.0%	26.0%
FY2016	569	438	131	77.0%	23.0%
FY2017	582	420	162	72.2%	27.8%
FY2018	688	559	129	81.3%	18.8%
FY2019	872	667	205	76.5%	23.5%
FY2020	591	449	142	76.0%	24.0%
FY2021	617	502	115	81.4%	18.6%
FY2022	665	537	128	80.8%	19.2%
FY2023	495	396	99	80.0%	20.0%
FY2024	500	397	103	79.4%	20.6%
FY2025	537	456	81	84.9%	15.1%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	645	518	127	80.3%	19.7%
FY2023	479	383	96	80.0%	20.0%
FY2024	499	396	103	79.4%	20.6%
FY2025	518	439	79	84.7%	15.3%

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