Western 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: 352
Noncitizens, FY2025: 10%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 360
Detained, FY2025: 71.4%

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	94%332	332
Prison and alternatives	1%5	5
Probation and alternatives	1%3	3
Probation only	3%12	12

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 60 months (mean 84) for the 337 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
Firearms	32%112	112
Drug Trafficking	25%88	88
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	16%55	55
Immigration	7%24	24
Child Pornography	5%17	17
Robbery	3%11	11
Sex Abuse	2%8	8
Tax	2%8	8
Assault	2%7	7
Money Launder	2%6	6
Administration of Justice	1%4	4
Kidnapping	1%4	4
Murder	1%4	4
Drug Possession	<1%1	1
Environmental	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1
Stalking/Harassing	<1%1	1

All 352 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	172	166	184	172	172	137	99	88
Firearms	90	102	98	128	146	85	101	112
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	71	72	46	36	58	36	30	55
Immigration	65	68	73	49	41	36	17	24
Robbery	29	17	15	35	30	11	8	11
Child Pornography	20	24	16	27	22	16	10	17
Sex Abuse	12	11	15	20	23	10	16	8
Money Launder	15	23	17	11	19	12	6	6
Extortion/Racketeering	34	19	2	0	0	0	0	0
Tax	4	6	10	8	11	2	3	8
Assault	8	2	11	3	7	2	4	7
Administration of Justice	10	7	5	4	3	0	0	4
Murder	14	1	7	3	1	1	0	4
Environmental	4	0	1	0	6	1	2	1
Stalking/Harassing	4	0	2	1	4	3	0	1
Bribery/Corruption	1	5	2	0	3	2	0	0
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	2	5	3	1	0	1	0	0
Drug Possession	2	3	2	0	0	1	1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	3	2	0	0	1	1	1
Other	0	0	0	3	5	1	1	0
Kidnapping	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	4
Prison Offenses	2	1	0	0	0	0	4	0
Commercialized Vice	2	0	0	0	0	2	0	0
National Defense	1	1	1	0	0	0	1	0
Individual Rights	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
Arson	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Burglary/Trespass	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Food and Drug	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Manslaughter	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	566	538	513	502	553	362	305	352

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%316	316
Not a U.S. citizen	10%36	36
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

24 of the 352 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
Black, 4 placed by CrimeDB	58%205	205
White+MENA, 2 placed by CrimeDB	25%87	87
Hispanic, 1 placed by CrimeDB	14%50	50
AIAN	2%7	7
Asian+NHPI	<1%1	1
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 352 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 7 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	32%112	112
II	18%63	63
III	18%64	64
IV	12%43	43
V	9%32	32
VI	11%37	37
Category not known	<1%1	1

All 352 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%160	160
Above the range	5%16	16
Below the range, government-sponsored	16%55	55
Below the range, not government-sponsored	34%120	120
Not known or not comparable	<1%1	1

All 352 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	360	257	103	71.4%	28.6%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	321	221	100	68.8%	31.2%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	282	184	98	65.2%	34.8%

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 Western District of North Carolina, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	594	463	79	52	58
FY2003	596	516	62	18	13
FY2004	541	444	81	16	23
FY2005	607	488	113	6	30
FY2006	812	642	164	6	51
FY2007	766	596	165	5	76
FY2008	807	625	179	3	58
FY2009	530	432	97	1	31
FY2010	502	395	107	0	39
FY2011	551	390	160	1	71
FY2012	435	275	159	1	105
FY2013	614	436	178	0	105
FY2014	629	509	120	0	63
FY2015	693	578	115	0	55
FY2016	658	505	153	0	72
FY2017	555	459	94	2	34
FY2018	566	475	91	0	65
FY2019	538	422	115	1	68
FY2020	513	411	102	0	73
FY2021	502	423	79	0	49
FY2022	553	484	69	0	41
FY2023	362	304	58	0	36
FY2024	305	270	35	0	17
FY2025	352	316	36	0	24

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 Western 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	594	502	14	18	22	5	33	92%	8
FY2003*	596	500	17	32	39	4	4	87%	8
FY2004	541	473	13	23	27	4	1	90%	3
FY2005*	607	533	12	24	35	1	2	90%	4
FY2006	812	726	13	21	52	0	0	91%	9
FY2007	766	722	9	15	19	0	1	96%	9
FY2008*	807	734	14	27	30	1	1	93%	5
FY2009	530	487	6	15	22	0	0	93%	4
FY2010*	502	462	4	18	18	0	0	93%	0
FY2011	551	516	9	17	9	0	0	95%	9
FY2012	435	403	7	14	11	0	0	94%	1
FY2013	614	551	18	27	18	0	0	93%	3
FY2014	629	569	19	21	20	0	0	93%	3
FY2015	693	607	14	27	45	0	0	90%	1
FY2016	658	600	15	17	26	0	0	93%	1
FY2017	555	514	9	12	20	0	0	94%	8
FY2018	566	510	11	19	26	0	0	92%	6
FY2019*	538	499	11	14	14	0	0	95%	0
FY2020	513	486	6	13	8	0	0	96%	1
FY2021	502	476	8	5	13	0	0	96%	3
FY2022	553	517	6	11	19	0	0	95%	0
FY2023	362	346	4	5	7	0	0	97%	1
FY2024*	305	289	4	8	4	0	0	96%	1
FY2025	352	332	5	3	12	0	0	96%	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 Western 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	83	50	554	95	61	480
FY2003*	89	54	591	101	63	516
FY2004	81	48	539	90	60	481
FY2005*	75	46	604	83	53	544
FY2006	81	57	812	89	60	739
FY2007	88	62	765	92	69	730
FY2008*	86	61	806	93	68	747
FY2009	93	63	530	100	72	491
FY2010*	85	60	502	92	63	465
FY2011	78	46	551	83	51	520
FY2012	54	35	435	58	37	403
FY2013	66	41	614	72	48	555
FY2014	71	48	629	77	57	577
FY2015	62	42	693	70	48	608
FY2016	61	41	658	67	46	597
FY2017	72	50	555	77	57	517
FY2018	70	41	566	75	48	521
FY2019*	65	48	538	68	53	510
FY2020	77	57	513	79	60	492
FY2021	83	60	502	86	60	484
FY2022	83	60	553	87	61	523
FY2023	87	62	362	90	68	350
FY2024*	81	51	305	84	54	293
FY2025	80	59	352	84	60	337

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 Western District of North Carolina by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	281	277	241	267	367	310	357	232
Firearms	45	58	77	124	171	195	152	87
Fraud	78	63	53	56	79	75	81	59
Immigration	58	13	23	30	51	76	58	31
Robbery	39	45	47	36	21	25	14	11
Forgery/Counterfeiting	25	38	18	11	17	8	14	11
Larceny	9	27	9	6	20	10	10	12
Money Laundering	7	22	5	13	15	4	16	6
Pornography/Prostitution	8	3	5	14	6	12	13	14
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	10	4	9	11	11	10	2	6
Sexual Abuse	2	1	6	6	5	9	18	10
Administration of Justice	3	6	2	7	7	8	12	2
Assault	2	3	9	3	4	1	9	8
Drugs - Simple Possession	2	12	9	1	8	5	0	0
Embezzlement	4	3	1	4	8	3	5	7
Tax Offenses	5	1	3	4	3	5	7	7
Gambling/Lottery	1	1	1	0	0	1	21	5
Racketeering/Extortion	3	4	6	4	4	2	2	5
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	2	6	0	6	0	5	2
Prison Offenses	2	0	3	1	2	0	0	5
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	0	0	2	0	3	3	4
Arson	1	1	0	0	1	1	1	4
Civil Rights Offenses	2	2	0	3	1	0	0	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	3	4	1	1	0	0	0
Bribery	0	2	0	1	0	0	4	1
Auto Theft	2	1	2	0	1	0	0	0
Murder	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	0
Manslaughter	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Offense type not known	3	4	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	594	596	541	607	812	766	807	530

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 Western District of North Carolina by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	194	178	116	200	207	246	235	245
Firearms	104	107	69	108	152	111	132	98
Fraud	67	75	52	62	57	114	70	59
Immigration	39	71	105	105	63	55	72	34
Child Pornography	11	12	14	27	21	23	26	21
Racketeering/Extortion	8	8	9	15	22	23	40	20
Money Laundering	6	21	8	20	34	19	12	8
Robbery	18	15	7	12	9	13	6	9
Administration of Justice	8	8	7	12	9	5	4	14
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	6	4	7	8	9	11	7	12
Larceny	2	8	2	9	8	10	7	4
Embezzlement	4	4	5	7	10	8	5	6
Tax Offenses	2	10	8	6	6	6	9	2
Sexual Abuse	4	7	7	6	4	3	5	4
Forgery/Counterfeiting	4	7	6	4	5	5	6	0
Assault	4	3	5	5	0	5	7	3
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	5	0	2	5	4	7	5	1
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	25	2	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	8	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
Bribery	1	6	1	0	1	0	0	0
Murder	2	1	2	1	1	0	2	0
Arson	2	0	0	0	4	0	1	1
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	0	4	0	0	0	1	0	3
Gambling/Lottery	1	1	1	0	0	0	3	1
Auto Theft	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	5
Prison Offenses	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	2
Drugs - Simple Possession	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
Manslaughter	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
National Defense Offenses	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0
Antitrust Violations	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0
All offenses	502	551	435	614	629	693	658	555

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 Western District of North Carolina by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Firearms	112	32%
Drug Trafficking	88	25%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	55	16%
Immigration	24	7%
Child Pornography	17	5%
Robbery	11	3%
Sex Abuse	8	2%
Tax	8	2%
Assault	7	2%
Money Launder	6	2%
Administration of Justice	4	1%
Kidnapping	4	1%
Murder	4	1%
Drug Possession	1	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%
Stalking/Harassing	1	<1%

All 352 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 Western District of North Carolina by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
Black	205	4	58%
White+MENA	87	2	25%
Hispanic	50	1	14%
AIAN	7	0	2%
Asian+NHPI	1	0	<1%
Race unknown	2	0	1%

All 352 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 7 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 Western District of North Carolina by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	112	32%
II	63	18%
III	64	18%
IV	43	12%
V	32	9%
VI	37	11%
Category not known	1	<1%

All 352 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 Western District of North Carolina against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	160	46%
Above the range	16	5%
Below the range, government-sponsored	55	16%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	120	34%
Not known or not comparable	1	<1%

All 352 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 Western District of North Carolina, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	609	331	278	54.4%	45.6%
FY2007	621	378	243	60.9%	39.1%
FY2008	582	385	197	66.2%	33.8%
FY2009	555	392	163	70.6%	29.4%
FY2010	487	334	153	68.6%	31.4%
FY2011	638	427	211	66.9%	33.1%
FY2012	677	470	207	69.4%	30.6%
FY2013	711	427	284	60.1%	39.9%
FY2014	535	337	198	63.0%	37.0%
FY2015	587	413	174	70.4%	29.6%
FY2016	545	379	166	69.5%	30.5%
FY2017	637	443	194	69.5%	30.5%
FY2018	572	423	149	74.0%	26.0%
FY2019	521	394	127	75.6%	24.4%
FY2020	597	465	132	77.9%	22.1%
FY2021	451	338	113	74.9%	25.1%
FY2022	407	276	131	67.8%	32.2%
FY2023	346	243	103	70.2%	29.8%
FY2024	365	259	106	71.0%	29.0%
FY2025	360	257	103	71.4%	28.6%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	584	307	277	52.6%	47.4%
FY2007	576	333	243	57.8%	42.2%
FY2008	541	344	197	63.6%	36.4%
FY2009	519	356	163	68.6%	31.4%
FY2010	441	288	153	65.3%	34.7%
FY2011	531	320	211	60.3%	39.7%
FY2012	578	372	206	64.4%	35.6%
FY2013	656	372	284	56.7%	43.3%
FY2014	490	293	197	59.8%	40.2%
FY2015	534	360	174	67.4%	32.6%
FY2016	508	343	165	67.5%	32.5%
FY2017	598	404	194	67.6%	32.4%
FY2018	522	373	149	71.5%	28.5%
FY2019	467	340	127	72.8%	27.2%
FY2020	526	394	132	74.9%	25.1%
FY2021	407	294	113	72.2%	27.8%
FY2022	365	234	131	64.1%	35.9%
FY2023	326	223	103	68.4%	31.6%
FY2024	355	249	106	70.1%	29.9%
FY2025	321	221	100	68.8%	31.2%

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

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	345	216	129	62.6%	37.4%
FY2023	317	215	102	67.8%	32.2%
FY2024	341	235	106	68.9%	31.1%
FY2025	282	184	98	65.2%	34.8%

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