Western District of Virginia

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

People sentenced, FY2025: 248
Noncitizens, FY2025: 14%
Pretrial cases, FY2025: 191
Detained, FY2025: 61.8%

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	89%220	220
Prison and alternatives	2%5	5
Probation and alternatives	<1%1	1
Probation only	9%22	22

Alternatives are home detention, community confinement, or intermittent confinement. The median prison term was 42 months (mean 68) for the 225 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	46%114	114
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	17%42	42
Firearms	12%29	29
Immigration	8%20	20
Administration of Justice	2%6	6
Sex Abuse	2%6	6
Robbery	2%5	5
Bribery/Corruption	2%4	4
Tax	2%4	4
Child Pornography	1%3	3
Murder	1%2	2
Prison Offenses	1%2	2
Stalking/Harassing	1%2	2
Assault	<1%1	1
Drug Possession	<1%1	1
Environmental	<1%1	1
Food and Drug	<1%1	1
Individual Rights	<1%1	1
Manslaughter	<1%1	1
Money Launder	<1%1	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	<1%1	1
Other	<1%1	1

All 248 people sentenced, by the Commission's offense type (OFFGUIDE, by the primary guideline).

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

Offense	FY2018	FY2019*	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024*	FY2025
Drug Trafficking	140	106	142	89	145	134	107	114
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	27	28	26	47	58	21	12	42
Firearms	13	23	35	26	19	27	46	29
Immigration	13	61	31	17	7	2	1	20
Child Pornography	4	3	3	6	6	5	2	3
Robbery	1	0	6	0	5	8	7	5
Sex Abuse	5	1	0	5	3	3	6	6
Administration of Justice	3	2	6	6	4	1	0	6
Tax	13	3	2	2	0	1	2	4
Murder	0	1	11	6	5	0	1	2
Assault	1	3	0	7	9	0	0	1
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	2	2	5	5	2	0	4	1
Prison Offenses	2	1	6	6	4	0	0	2
Other	6	4	3	1	1	1	3	1
Stalking/Harassing	0	3	3	5	2	1	2	2
Money Launder	3	0	1	1	7	2	0	1
Food and Drug	0	2	0	5	2	3	1	1
Bribery/Corruption	2	0	1	2	0	0	0	4
Drug Possession	1	0	0	2	0	0	1	1
Extortion/Racketeering	1	0	4	0	0	0	0	0
Individual Rights	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1
Manslaughter	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Commercialized Vice	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
Environmental	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Forgery/Counter/Copyright	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kidnapping	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	238	243	287	239	279	210	196	248

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	86%214	214
Not a U.S. citizen	14%34	34
Citizenship not known	0%0	0

20 of the 248 were sentenced for an immigration offense.

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

People sentenced by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025
White+MENA, 5 placed by CrimeDB	46%115	115
Black, 3 placed by CrimeDB	36%88	88
Hispanic, 2 placed by CrimeDB	17%41	41
Asian+NHPI, 1 placed by CrimeDB	1%2	2
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 248 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	36%90	90
II	14%36	36
III	13%32	32
IV	9%22	22
V	9%23	23
VI	18%45	45

All 248 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	30%75	75
Above the range	3%8	8
Below the range, government-sponsored	39%96	96
Below the range, not government-sponsored	28%69	69

All 248 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	191	118	73	61.8%	38.2%
Excluding immigration cases	H-14A	159	90	69	56.6%	43.4%
Excluding illegal alien cases	H-14B	152	85	67	55.9%	44.1%

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 Western District of Virginia, by fiscal year

Fiscal year	People sentenced	U.S. citizens	Noncitizens	Citizenship not known	Immigration offenses
FY2002	401	356	43	2	9
FY2003	575	521	44	10	13
FY2004	474	422	47	5	11
FY2005	600	534	63	3	8
FY2006	599	532	61	6	7
FY2007	624	539	78	7	11
FY2008	404	351	48	5	7
FY2009	500	464	35	1	5
FY2010	369	328	35	6	11
FY2011	379	339	35	5	8
FY2012	378	328	46	4	10
FY2013	470	428	38	4	10
FY2014	402	373	29	0	9
FY2015	376	346	30	0	13
FY2016	313	288	25	0	8
FY2017	276	262	12	2	4
FY2018	238	211	26	1	13
FY2019	243	172	71	0	61
FY2020	287	248	39	0	31
FY2021	239	205	34	0	17
FY2022	279	251	27	1	7
FY2023	210	196	14	0	2
FY2024	196	188	8	0	1
FY2025	248	214	34	0	20

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 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	401	331	10	13	47	0	0	85%	2
FY2003*	575	464	18	30	57	5	1	84%	4
FY2004	474	403	10	19	40	0	2	88%	2
FY2005*	600	545	12	12	30	1	0	93%	7
FY2006	599	522	13	22	34	7	1	89%	6
FY2007	624	559	11	10	39	3	2	92%	3
FY2008*	404	360	5	8	30	1	0	90%	2
FY2009	500	442	8	11	37	2	0	90%	7
FY2010*	369	324	7	9	29	0	0	90%	0
FY2011	379	328	13	12	24	2	0	90%	2
FY2012	378	315	9	18	32	4	0	86%	4
FY2013	470	393	17	9	49	1	1	87%	3
FY2014	402	323	16	12	51	0	0	84%	0
FY2015	376	322	8	20	25	1	0	88%	0
FY2016	313	290	7	6	9	1	0	95%	4
FY2017	276	237	5	8	26	0	0	88%	0
FY2018	238	203	6	17	11	1	0	88%	0
FY2019*	243	211	6	12	14	0	0	89%	1
FY2020	287	253	6	8	20	0	0	90%	1
FY2021	239	208	4	14	12	1	0	89%	0
FY2022	279	246	5	13	15	0	0	90%	0
FY2023	210	186	10	8	6	0	0	93%	0
FY2024*	196	184	1	1	10	0	0	94%	0
FY2025	248	220	5	1	22	0	0	91%	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 Western District of Virginia, by fiscal year (months)

Fiscal year	Sentence, mean	Sentence, median	People sentenced	Prison term, mean	Prison term, median	Sentenced to prison
FY2002	67	41	400	78	57	340
FY2003*	77	48	574	92	60	480
FY2004	83	48	472	95	63	413
FY2005*	89	60	600	96	63	557
FY2006	90	60	598	100	70	535
FY2007	91	70	622	99	72	570
FY2008*	83	63	404	91	70	365
FY2009	89	60	500	99	72	447
FY2010*	78	60	369	86	60	331
FY2011	72	52	379	80	60	341
FY2012	68	44	378	78	56	324
FY2013	69	40	470	80	51	399
FY2014	57	37	402	68	48	337
FY2015	61	42	376	69	51	329
FY2016	81	60	313	85	60	296
FY2017	78	60	276	90	66	238
FY2018	73	48	238	82	60	209
FY2019*	58	24	243	65	36	217
FY2020	80	48	287	88	60	259
FY2021	60	36	239	67	46	212
FY2022	79	60	279	87	62	251
FY2023	86	61	210	91	72	196
FY2024*	73	54	196	77	60	185
FY2025	62	36	248	68	42	225

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 Virginia by offense, FY2002 to FY2009

Offense	FY2002	FY2003*	FY2004	FY2005*	FY2006	FY2007	FY2008*	FY2009
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	189	272	206	335	297	371	207	295
Firearms	85	113	126	132	132	106	69	68
Fraud	38	44	47	41	54	57	39	49
Administration of Justice	11	16	13	9	10	10	5	12
Forgery/Counterfeiting	7	36	9	5	6	5	6	10
Immigration	9	13	11	8	7	11	7	5
Larceny	8	17	14	6	7	3	11	4
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	6	15	5	15	4	5	13	5
Pornography/Prostitution	4	5	5	8	10	11	10	5
Money Laundering	4	8	1	4	14	2	6	16
Racketeering/Extortion	3	0	1	11	17	4	5	0
Embezzlement	0	11	3	5	7	5	3	6
Assault	0	5	6	2	2	6	8	9
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	10	1	5	4	7	9	1	0
Robbery	7	3	7	3	5	1	7	0
Prison Offenses	2	1	9	3	8	5	0	4
Drugs - Simple Possession	6	4	2	1	8	3	2	2
Tax Offenses	8	5	1	3	1	1	1	3
Arson	2	1	1	0	1	2	1	2
Sexual Abuse	0	1	0	1	0	1	3	3
Murder	0	1	1	2	2	2	0	0
Civil Rights Offenses	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0
Bribery	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
Kidnapping/Hostage Taking	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Auto Theft	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Burglary/Breaking and Entering	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
All offenses	401	575	474	600	599	624	404	500

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 Virginia by offense, FY2010 to FY2017

Offense	FY2010*	FY2011	FY2012	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016	FY2017
Drugs - Trafficking, Manufacturing, and Importing	189	190	179	205	214	221	167	146
Fraud	36	34	58	101	64	44	38	38
Firearms	71	47	58	55	28	22	40	36
Administration of Justice	12	19	14	18	10	6	21	7
Immigration	11	8	10	10	9	13	8	4
Child Pornography	8	10	6	14	7	7	5	6
Larceny	11	15	6	12	4	6	1	7
Traffic Violations and Other Offenses	1	5	11	10	9	10	4	9
Forgery/Counterfeiting	2	17	8	7	11	4	1	1
Tax Offenses	1	2	5	3	13	4	5	3
Money Laundering	0	3	1	16	6	4	1	1
Prison Offenses	4	3	4	2	3	3	4	7
Racketeering/Extortion	3	2	2	1	4	4	7	5
Assault	9	5	2	2	3	3	1	2
Embezzlement	0	7	5	2	2	6	0	1
Sexual Abuse	1	4	1	0	2	1	4	2
Gambling/Lottery	0	0	2	0	8	3	0	0
Arson	4	2	1	3	0	1	0	0
Food and Drug Offenses	0	0	1	0	1	5	4	0
Robbery	1	0	0	5	1	4	0	0
Drugs - Simple Possession	2	4	0	0	0	0	1	1
Auto Theft	2	0	2	1	0	1	0	0
Bribery	0	0	0	0	1	3	1	0
Murder	1	1	2	0	0	0	0	0
Drugs - Communication Facilities	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	0
Environmental, Game, Fish, and Wildlife Offenses	0	0	0	3	0	0	0	0
National Defense Offenses	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
All offenses	369	379	378	470	402	376	313	276

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 Virginia by offense, FY2025

Offense	People sentenced	Share
Drug Trafficking	114	46%
Fraud/Theft/Embezzlement	42	17%
Firearms	29	12%
Immigration	20	8%
Administration of Justice	6	2%
Sex Abuse	6	2%
Robbery	5	2%
Bribery/Corruption	4	2%
Tax	4	2%
Child Pornography	3	1%
Murder	2	1%
Prison Offenses	2	1%
Stalking/Harassing	2	1%
Assault	1	<1%
Drug Possession	1	<1%
Environmental	1	<1%
Food and Drug	1	<1%
Individual Rights	1	<1%
Manslaughter	1	<1%
Money Launder	1	<1%
Obscenity/Other Sex Offenses	1	<1%
Other	1	<1%

All 248 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 Virginia by race and Hispanic origin, FY2025

Race and Hispanic origin	People sentenced	Of which placed by CrimeDB	Share
White+MENA	115	5	46%
Black	88	3	36%
Hispanic	41	2	17%
Asian+NHPI	2	1	1%
Race unknown	2	0	1%

All 248 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 Western District of Virginia by criminal history category, FY2025

Criminal history category	People sentenced	Share
I	90	36%
II	36	14%
III	32	13%
IV	22	9%
V	23	9%
VI	45	18%

All 248 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 Virginia against the guideline range, FY2025

Against the guideline range	People sentenced	Share
Within the range	75	30%
Above the range	8	3%
Below the range, government-sponsored	96	39%
Below the range, not government-sponsored	69	28%

All 248 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 Virginia, all cases (Table H-14)

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	540	261	279	48.3%	51.7%
FY2007	531	232	299	43.7%	56.3%
FY2008	434	193	241	44.5%	55.5%
FY2009	322	133	189	41.3%	58.7%
FY2010	326	146	180	44.8%	55.2%
FY2011	327	165	162	50.5%	49.5%
FY2012	391	144	247	36.8%	63.2%
FY2013	445	206	239	46.3%	53.7%
FY2014	348	162	186	46.6%	53.4%
FY2015	296	133	163	44.9%	55.1%
FY2016	252	122	130	48.4%	51.6%
FY2017	254	119	135	46.9%	53.1%
FY2018	232	127	105	54.7%	45.3%
FY2019	333	205	128	61.6%	38.4%
FY2020	201	72	129	35.8%	64.2%
FY2021	189	76	113	40.2%	59.8%
FY2022	160	80	80	50.0%	50.0%
FY2023	208	120	88	57.7%	42.3%
FY2024	204	101	103	49.5%	50.5%
FY2025	191	118	73	61.8%	38.2%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2006	536	257	279	47.9%	52.1%
FY2007	522	223	299	42.7%	57.3%
FY2008	433	192	241	44.3%	55.7%
FY2009	318	130	188	40.9%	59.1%
FY2010	320	141	179	44.1%	55.9%
FY2011	324	162	162	50.0%	50.0%
FY2012	386	139	247	36.0%	64.0%
FY2013	438	200	238	45.7%	54.3%
FY2014	344	158	186	45.9%	54.1%
FY2015	286	124	162	43.4%	56.6%
FY2016	248	118	130	47.6%	52.4%
FY2017	248	115	133	46.4%	53.6%
FY2018	196	93	103	47.4%	52.6%
FY2019	276	164	112	59.4%	40.6%
FY2020	167	64	103	38.3%	61.7%
FY2021	188	75	113	39.9%	60.1%
FY2022	160	80	80	50.0%	50.0%
FY2023	206	120	86	58.3%	41.7%
FY2024	201	100	101	49.8%	50.2%
FY2025	159	90	69	56.6%	43.4%

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

Fiscal year	Cases opened	Detained	Released	Detained (%)	Released (%)
FY2022	157	77	80	49.0%	51.0%
FY2023	201	116	85	57.7%	42.3%
FY2024	192	91	101	47.4%	52.6%
FY2025	152	85	67	55.9%	44.1%

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