Middle 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: 312
Noncitizens, FY2025: 10%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 227
Detained, FY2025: 73.1%

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	92%288	288
Prison and alternatives	1%2	2
Probation and alternatives	1%4	4
Probation only	6%18	18

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 79 months (mean 92) for the 290 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
Firearms	44%138	138
Drug Trafficking	28%89	89
Robbery	7%22	22
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	4%13	13
Immigration	4%11	11
Child Pornography	3%9	9
Assault	2%6	6
Money Launder	2%6	6
Sex Abuse	2%6	6
Kidnapping	1%4	4
Tax	1%4	4
Administration of Justice	1%2	2
Other	<1%1	1
Prison Offenses	<1%1	1

All 312 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Firearms	135	169	170	137	156	126	104	138
Drug Trafficking	110	135	110	109	129	104	81	89
Robbery	32	56	36	22	22	20	19	22
Immigration	40	39	32	14	19	8	10	11
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	37	33	15	4	21	17	16	13
Child Pornography	11	19	9	22	21	10	8	9
Assault	1	1	5	8	9	11	8	6
Tax	6	7	6	7	7	5	2	4
Money Launder	2	6	9	9	2	5	4	6
Sex Abuse	6	3	3	6	7	6	5	6
Kidnapping	2	3	1	2	2	0	10	4
Individual Rights	1	0	0	15	0	0	1	0
Other	3	9	1	1	0	0	1	1
Stalking/Harassing	2	2	1	1	3	2	3	0
Prison Offenses	5	1	0	0	0	2	3	1
Administration of Justice	2	1	1	2	0	1	2	2
Murder	0	0	0	5	1	3	1	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	1	0	0	2	2	1	0
Drug Possession	0	3	1	0	1	0	1	0
Arson	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0
Extortion/Racketeering	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	0
Bribery/Corruption	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	403	490	404	365	403	326	283	312

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	90%281	281
Not a U.S. citizen	10%31	31
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

11 of the 312 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black	68%212	212
Hispanic, 2 placed by CrimeDB	15%48	48
White+MENA, 2 placed by CrimeDB	15%47	47
AIAN	1%3	3
Asian+NHPI	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 312 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 4 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	24%75	75
II	16%50	50
III	22%70	70
IV	14%42	42
V	8%26	26
VI	13%41	41
Category not known	3%8	8

All 312 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	52%162	162
Above the range	10%31	31
Below the range, government-sponsored	17%52	52
Below the range, not government-sponsored	22%67	67

All 312 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	227	166	61	73.1%	26.9%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	217	156	61	71.9%	28.1%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	198	137	61	69.2%	30.8%

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 Middle District of North Carolina, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	446	360	82	4	36
FY2003	354	266	85	3	40
FY2004	365	277	85	3	47
FY2005	465	313	152	0	68
FY2006	416	285	130	1	37
FY2007	429	309	112	8	42
FY2008	355	253	101	1	34
FY2009	431	315	115	1	35
FY2010	552	428	124	0	63
FY2011	529	378	149	2	64
FY2012	421	316	105	0	55
FY2013	436	357	78	1	42
FY2014	497	416	80	1	47
FY2015	508	433	75	0	44
FY2016	423	368	55	0	31
FY2017	407	333	74	0	37
FY2018	403	333	70	0	40
FY2019	490	418	72	0	39
FY2020	404	355	49	0	32
FY2021	365	310	54	1	14
FY2022	403	359	44	0	19
FY2023	326	293	33	0	8
FY2024	283	255	28	0	10
FY2025	312	281	31	0	11

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 Middle 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	446	397	10	10	28	0	1	91%	4
FY2003*	354	329	9	3	11	2	0	95%	1
FY2004	365	336	7	8	11	1	2	94%	1
FY2005*	465	430	9	8	18	0	0	94%	2
FY2006	416	399	5	6	6	0	0	97%	2
FY2007	429	396	10	7	15	1	0	95%	1
FY2008*	355	330	4	12	9	0	0	94%	2
FY2009	431	411	4	8	8	0	0	96%	0
FY2010*	552	508	8	11	25	0	0	93%	1
FY2011	529	492	15	9	12	1	0	96%	0
FY2012	421	393	6	9	13	0	0	95%	0
FY2013	436	398	11	9	18	0	0	94%	0
FY2014	497	459	2	18	18	0	0	93%	0
FY2015	508	447	18	13	30	0	0	92%	0
FY2016	423	375	12	16	20	0	0	91%	0
FY2017	407	358	21	13	15	0	0	93%	0
FY2018	403	352	20	10	20	1	0	92%	0
FY2019*	490	439	11	8	32	0	0	92%	0
FY2020	404	346	13	13	31	1	0	89%	0
FY2021	365	319	4	11	22	9	0	88%	0
FY2022	403	375	7	6	15	0	0	95%	0
FY2023	326	289	6	9	22	0	0	90%	2
FY2024*	283	247	8	5	23	0	0	90%	1
FY2025	312	288	2	4	18	0	0	93%	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 Middle 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	90	60	445	99	67	407
FY2003*	90	62	354	95	64	337
FY2004	87	64	364	92	70	343
FY2005*	87	60	465	92	60	439
FY2006	90	63	416	93	65	404
FY2007	98	70	429	103	77	406
FY2008*	86	63	355	91	66	334
FY2009	91	63	431	94	67	415
FY2010*	90	68	552	96	76	516
FY2011	84	60	529	88	63	506
FY2012	77	56	421	80	57	399
FY2013	74	51	436	78	58	409
FY2014	73	54	497	78	59	461
FY2015	64	50	508	69	54	465
FY2016	61	48	423	67	56	385
FY2017	62	51	407	65	55	379
FY2018	63	48	403	67	53	372
FY2019*	68	60	490	74	60	450
FY2020	63	51	404	70	60	359
FY2021	74	60	365	83	65	323
FY2022	80	63	403	85	66	382
FY2023	88	66	326	97	71	295
FY2024*	87	66	283	96	76	255
FY2025	86	70	312	92	79	290

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 Middle District of North Carolina by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	138	100	87	151	140	180	141	166
Firearms	98	89	114	111	123	104	90	147
Immigration	36	40	47	68	37	42	34	35
Robbery	54	39	33	34	33	17	21	12
Fraud	38	19	15	43	27	45	27	28
Forgery/Counterfeiting	21	23	16	8	19	11	4	2
Larceny	12	5	9	3	2	4	6	9
Embezzlement	11	5	10	10	3	1	4	2
Pornography/Prostitution	5	3	5	10	8	5	3	6
Money Laundering	3	10	6	7	5	4	3	3
Racketeering/Extortion	5	3	7	6	7	1	3	5
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	6	3	5	3	2	7	7	3
Prison Offenses	2	2	4	3	1	0	1	2
Tax Offenses	4	0	1	0	2	1	3	1
Administration of Justice	3	0	2	2	2	1	0	1
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	1	0	0	1	0	3	6
Sexual Abuse	2	1	0	0	0	2	3	1
Auto Theft	1	3	1	2	0	1	0	0
Assault	0	2	1	2	0	1	0	0
Murder	2	0	1	0	0	1	1	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	0
Arson	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	1
Food and Drug Offenses	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Offense type not known	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	446	354	365	465	416	429	355	431

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 Middle District of North Carolina by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Firearms	240	200	140	182	214	183	139	123
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	150	135	95	71	93	135	139	119
Immigration	63	64	55	42	47	44	31	37
Fraud	28	28	31	29	25	41	26	32
Child Pornography	4	21	29	29	30	25	20	23
Robbery	18	19	16	16	16	20	15	13
Racketeering/Extortion	3	4	6	15	13	17	11	23
Administration of Justice	4	4	13	13	9	8	10	6
Forgery/Counterfeiting	11	16	4	7	21	2	3	0
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	6	9	6	8	10	8	4	7
Larceny	9	10	11	6	4	7	7	2
Embezzlement	4	4	4	6	5	2	3	3
Tax Offenses	4	6	2	4	1	1	4	5
Drugs - Communication Facilities	2	0	2	2	0	4	0	2
Money Laundering	0	0	1	0	0	3	4	4
Assault	1	4	0	2	0	2	2	0
Prison Offenses	0	2	1	2	0	3	1	1
Sexual Abuse	1	0	3	1	2	0	0	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	2	1	0	2	3	0	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	4
Arson	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1
Gambling/Lottery	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	552	529	421	436	497	508	423	407

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 Middle District of North Carolina by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Firearms	138	44%
Drug Trafficking	89	28%
Robbery	22	7%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	13	4%
Immigration	11	4%
Child Pornography	9	3%
Assault	6	2%
Money Launder	6	2%
Sex Abuse	6	2%
Kidnapping	4	1%
Tax	4	1%
Administration of Justice	2	1%
Other	1	<1%
Prison Offenses	1	<1%

All 312 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 Middle District of North Carolina by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	212	0	68%
Hispanic	48	2	15%
White+MENA	47	2	15%
AIAN	3	0	1%
Asian+NHPI	2	0	1%

All 312 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 4 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 Middle District of North Carolina by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	75	24%
II	50	16%
III	70	22%
IV	42	14%
V	26	8%
VI	41	13%
Category not known	8	3%

All 312 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 Middle District of North Carolina against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	162	52%
Above the range	31	10%
Below the range, government-sponsored	52	17%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	67	22%

All 312 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 Middle District of North Carolina, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	364	278	86	76.4%	23.6%
FY2007	359	267	92	74.4%	25.6%
FY2008	464	321	143	69.2%	30.8%
FY2009	461	332	129	72.0%	28.0%
FY2010	398	279	119	70.1%	29.9%
FY2011	350	253	97	72.3%	27.7%
FY2012	354	250	104	70.6%	29.4%
FY2013	378	248	130	65.6%	34.4%
FY2014	370	238	132	64.3%	35.7%
FY2015	401	237	164	59.1%	40.9%
FY2016	307	170	137	55.4%	44.6%
FY2017	325	220	105	67.7%	32.3%
FY2018	312	194	118	62.2%	37.8%
FY2019	370	226	144	61.1%	38.9%
FY2020	306	163	143	53.3%	46.7%
FY2021	329	217	112	66.0%	34.0%
FY2022	301	192	109	63.8%	36.2%
FY2023	264	176	88	66.7%	33.3%
FY2024	208	142	66	68.3%	31.7%
FY2025	227	166	61	73.1%	26.9%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	344	258	86	75.0%	25.0%
FY2007	344	252	92	73.3%	26.7%
FY2008	439	296	143	67.4%	32.6%
FY2009	422	293	129	69.4%	30.6%
FY2010	360	241	119	66.9%	33.1%
FY2011	313	216	97	69.0%	31.0%
FY2012	315	211	104	67.0%	33.0%
FY2013	347	218	129	62.8%	37.2%
FY2014	336	204	132	60.7%	39.3%
FY2015	375	211	164	56.3%	43.7%
FY2016	284	147	137	51.8%	48.2%
FY2017	288	183	105	63.5%	36.5%
FY2018	285	167	118	58.6%	41.4%
FY2019	349	207	142	59.3%	40.7%
FY2020	288	148	140	51.4%	48.6%
FY2021	320	208	112	65.0%	35.0%
FY2022	292	184	108	63.0%	37.0%
FY2023	260	172	88	66.2%	33.8%
FY2024	199	136	63	68.3%	31.7%
FY2025	217	156	61	71.9%	28.1%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	275	171	104	62.2%	37.8%
FY2023	241	154	87	63.9%	36.1%
FY2024	193	133	60	68.9%	31.1%
FY2025	198	137	61	69.2%	30.8%

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