Southern District of West Virginia

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 216
Noncitizens, FY2025: 4%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 185
Detained, FY2025: 55.1%

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	80%172	172
Prison and alternatives	2%5	5
Probation and alternatives	5%10	10
Probation only	13%29	29

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 52 months (mean 76) for the 177 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	43%92	92
Firearms	21%45	45
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	9%19	19
Immigration	5%11	11
Sex Abuse	4%8	8
Individual Rights	3%7	7
Prison Offenses	3%7	7
Money Launder	3%6	6
Child Pornography	2%5	5
Administration of Justice	2%4	4
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2%4	4
Tax	2%4	4
Other	1%2	2
Murder	1%1	1
Stalking/Harassing	1%1	1

All 216 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

People sentenced in the Southern District of West Virginia by offense, FY2018 to FY2025

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	115	163	142	123	136	96	122	92
Firearms	47	63	56	38	47	53	40	45
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	14	23	14	13	30	21	28	19
Sex Abuse	2	11	17	7	18	13	8	8
Prison Offenses	20	10	6	11	7	7	8	7
Immigration	16	20	15	6	3	3	0	11
Child Pornography	9	6	3	7	11	12	9	5
Money Launder	1	4	0	1	4	5	1	6
Administration of Justice	0	1	1	3	0	3	3	4
Drug Possession	4	2	4	2	0	1	0	0
Individual Rights	0	0	0	1	2	1	1	7
Assault	3	0	0	2	2	4	0	0
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	0	0	0	2	2	1	4
Other	2	3	1	2	0	1	0	2
Tax	1	1	2	1	0	1	1	4
Robbery	1	4	0	1	1	0	0	0
Stalking/Harassing	2	0	1	1	2	0	0	1
Arson	0	1	0	0	1	3	0	0
Environmental	0	2	0	0	1	0	2	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0
Food and Drug	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
National Defense	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
All offenses	239	315	262	220	269	227	230	216

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	96%207	207
Not a U.S. citizen	4%9	9
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

11 of the 216 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA, 10 placed by CrimeDB	54%116	116
Black, 7 placed by CrimeDB	36%77	77
Hispanic, 1 placed by CrimeDB	9%19	19
Asian+NHPI	1%1	1
Race unknown	1%3	3

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 216 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 18 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	40%86	86
II	17%37	37
III	17%37	37
IV	9%19	19
V	10%21	21
VI	7%16	16

All 216 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	45%97	97
Above the range	3%6	6
Below the range, government-sponsored	14%30	30
Below the range, not government-sponsored	38%83	83

All 216 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	185	102	83	55.1%	44.9%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	176	95	81	54.0%	46.0%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	172	91	81	52.9%	47.1%

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 Southern District of West Virginia, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	262	245	1	16	0
FY2003	314	301	12	1	1
FY2004	226	215	8	3	4
FY2005	327	319	7	1	3
FY2006	269	261	6	2	0
FY2007	254	233	19	2	3
FY2008	272	263	8	1	3
FY2009	284	282	2	0	0
FY2010	242	230	12	0	3
FY2011	312	299	11	2	7
FY2012	305	290	12	3	3
FY2013	235	233	1	1	2
FY2014	297	293	4	0	1
FY2015	284	275	4	5	2
FY2016	217	207	9	1	3
FY2017	221	211	9	1	2
FY2018	239	217	21	1	16
FY2019	315	294	20	1	20
FY2020	262	241	21	0	15
FY2021	220	209	10	1	6
FY2022	269	261	8	0	3
FY2023	227	220	7	0	3
FY2024	230	229	1	0	0
FY2025	216	207	9	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 Southern District of West Virginia, 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	262	216	10	13	14	0	9	89%	0
FY2003*	314	277	7	8	18	0	4	92%	2
FY2004	226	194	5	9	17	0	1	88%	0
FY2005*	327	288	11	15	11	0	2	92%	1
FY2006	269	222	4	15	27	0	1	84%	0
FY2007	254	219	6	12	15	1	1	89%	0
FY2008*	272	241	7	10	13	1	0	91%	2
FY2009	284	241	8	18	17	0	0	88%	0
FY2010*	242	210	6	17	9	0	0	89%	2
FY2011	312	237	20	25	28	2	0	82%	0
FY2012	305	256	11	18	20	0	0	88%	0
FY2013	235	209	7	10	9	0	0	92%	0
FY2014	297	243	18	15	21	0	0	88%	0
FY2015	284	233	13	10	27	1	0	87%	0
FY2016	217	183	8	10	16	0	0	88%	1
FY2017	221	196	7	7	11	0	0	92%	0
FY2018	239	219	7	4	9	0	0	95%	0
FY2019*	315	289	12	6	8	0	0	96%	0
FY2020	262	247	6	2	7	0	0	97%	0
FY2021	220	200	4	6	10	0	0	93%	0
FY2022	269	245	4	8	11	1	0	93%	0
FY2023	227	190	3	14	20	0	0	85%	0
FY2024*	230	184	3	14	29	0	0	81%	0
FY2025	216	172	5	10	29	0	0	82%	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 Southern District of West Virginia, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	60	41	253	67	46	226
FY2003*	65	42	310	71	48	284
FY2004	61	37	225	68	46	199
FY2005*	62	46	325	66	48	299
FY2006	55	37	268	65	48	226
FY2007	60	41	253	67	46	225
FY2008*	66	42	272	72	50	248
FY2009	48	36	284	54	41	249
FY2010*	56	36	242	63	40	216
FY2011	39	24	312	47	30	251
FY2012	41	27	305	46	36	266
FY2013	46	36	235	49	37	216
FY2014	44	24	297	49	30	261
FY2015	39	24	284	44	30	246
FY2016	36	24	217	40	27	190
FY2017	50	30	221	54	36	202
FY2018	55	38	239	58	46	226
FY2019*	51	34	315	53	36	301
FY2020	51	42	262	53	42	253
FY2021	65	46	220	70	50	204
FY2022	66	48	269	71	54	249
FY2023	63	46	227	74	57	193
FY2024*	56	38	230	68	51	187
FY2025	62	36	216	76	52	177

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 Southern District of West Virginia by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	131	162	110	180	162	145	152	149
Firearms	43	64	35	65	31	34	40	45
Fraud	37	34	17	17	23	19	17	29
Larceny	5	19	12	7	4	8	1	11
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	6	4	2	7	10	9	11	7
Robbery	4	3	8	11	3	1	5	4
Prison Offenses	1	2	13	3	1	5	6	4
Embezzlement	1	6	2	5	6	6	3	5
Pornography/Prostitution	6	1	6	2	5	4	5	5
Tax Offenses	3	1	0	5	4	3	8	6
Forgery/Counterfeiting	5	1	1	3	2	8	3	6
Administration of Justice	4	1	3	7	5	1	0	3
Money Laundering	3	2	5	4	1	0	4	0
Assault	1	6	2	1	2	0	3	1
Immigration	0	1	4	3	0	3	3	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	2	1	1	1	1	0	3	3
Racketeering/Extortion	2	3	1	4	0	0	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	1	0	0	2	6	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	2	2	0	0	2	3	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	1	0	1	1	2	3
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	2	1	0	0	1	3	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	4	0	0	0	0	1	1	0
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1
Arson	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Murder	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	262	314	226	327	269	254	272	284

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 Southern District of West Virginia by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	115	152	193	143	151	149	123	125
Firearms	37	46	29	33	41	32	24	35
Fraud	20	19	31	13	19	12	10	12
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	9	18	5	3	14	8	7	9
Prison Offenses	5	9	5	4	13	15	7	6
Child Pornography	11	6	6	11	12	7	7	3
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	12	2	1	16	19	11	1
Racketeering/Extortion	4	7	8	4	2	12	2	8
Administration of Justice	9	6	4	6	7	4	2	1
Larceny	7	7	6	2	2	2	1	1
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	3	1	1	1	4	7	9
Immigration	3	7	3	2	1	2	3	2
Tax Offenses	4	2	2	4	4	3	1	2
Money Laundering	8	0	0	0	3	6	0	0
Assault	1	2	2	2	1	3	1	4
Forgery/Counterfeiting	1	7	2	0	0	0	4	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	1	0	1	0	3	5	1
Embezzlement	3	1	1	1	2	1	0	1
Robbery	0	3	2	2	1	1	0	0
Auto Theft	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
Sexual Abuse	0	0	2	0	1	1	1	1
Arson	0	0	0	1	3	0	1	0
Civil Rights Offenses	2	0	0	0	2	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	242	312	305	235	297	284	217	221

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 Southern District of West Virginia by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	92	43%
Firearms	45	21%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	19	9%
Immigration	11	5%
Sex Abuse	8	4%
Individual Rights	7	3%
Prison Offenses	7	3%
Money Launder	6	3%
Child Pornography	5	2%
Administration of Justice	4	2%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	4	2%
Tax	4	2%
Other	2	1%
Murder	1	1%
Stalking/Harassing	1	1%

All 216 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 Southern District of West Virginia by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
White+MENA	116	10	54%
Black	77	7	36%
Hispanic	19	1	9%
Asian+NHPI	1	0	1%
Race unknown	3	0	1%

All 216 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 18 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 Southern District of West Virginia by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	86	40%
II	37	17%
III	37	17%
IV	19	9%
V	21	10%
VI	16	7%

All 216 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 Southern District of West Virginia against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	97	45%
Above the range	6	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	30	14%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	83	38%

All 216 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 Southern District of West Virginia, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	320	122	198	38.1%	61.9%
FY2007	292	163	129	55.8%	44.2%
FY2008	269	115	154	42.8%	57.2%
FY2009	273	135	138	49.5%	50.5%
FY2010	282	89	193	31.6%	68.4%
FY2011	328	136	192	41.5%	58.5%
FY2012	267	131	136	49.1%	50.9%
FY2013	298	148	150	49.7%	50.3%
FY2014	281	132	149	47.0%	53.0%
FY2015	228	127	101	55.7%	44.3%
FY2016	232	140	92	60.3%	39.7%
FY2017	217	144	73	66.4%	33.6%
FY2018	256	166	90	64.8%	35.2%
FY2019	363	251	112	69.1%	30.9%
FY2020	248	152	96	61.3%	38.7%
FY2021	235	140	95	59.6%	40.4%
FY2022	245	140	105	57.1%	42.9%
FY2023	204	94	110	46.1%	53.9%
FY2024	219	121	98	55.3%	44.7%
FY2025	185	102	83	55.1%	44.9%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	318	120	198	37.7%	62.3%
FY2007	281	152	129	54.1%	45.9%
FY2008	269	115	154	42.8%	57.2%
FY2009	272	134	138	49.3%	50.7%
FY2010	278	85	193	30.6%	69.4%
FY2011	326	134	192	41.1%	58.9%
FY2012	266	130	136	48.9%	51.1%
FY2013	298	148	150	49.7%	50.3%
FY2014	279	130	149	46.6%	53.4%
FY2015	227	126	101	55.5%	44.5%
FY2016	228	136	92	59.6%	40.4%
FY2017	209	136	73	65.1%	34.9%
FY2018	242	152	90	62.8%	37.2%
FY2019	345	233	112	67.5%	32.5%
FY2020	236	140	96	59.3%	40.7%
FY2021	229	134	95	58.5%	41.5%
FY2022	239	134	105	56.1%	43.9%
FY2023	203	93	110	45.8%	54.2%
FY2024	219	121	98	55.3%	44.7%
FY2025	176	95	81	54.0%	46.0%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	240	135	105	56.3%	43.8%
FY2023	203	93	110	45.8%	54.2%
FY2024	216	118	98	54.6%	45.4%
FY2025	172	91	81	52.9%	47.1%

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