§2A1.2 Second Degree Murder: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021
All 45 people sentenced under §2A1.2 in fiscal year 2021 pleaded guilty (100%), and none was convicted after a trial. All 45 received a prison term, and the median was 210 months (17.5 years). 2 people received a life sentence.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A1.2 Second Degree Murder › §2A1.2: FY2021
In brief: All 45 people sentenced under §2A1.2 in fiscal year 2021 pleaded guilty (100%), and none was convicted after a trial. All 45 received a prison term, and the median was 210 months (17.5 years). 2 people received a life sentence.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 45 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
No Trial Convictions in Fiscal Year 2021
45 of the 45 people (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Because there were no trial convictions, this post has no trial median to report and cannot compare trial and plea sentences for the year.
93% of the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and 7% were straight pleas. Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the plea rate under this guideline was 88%. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2021 it was 98%.
Prison Terms and Life Sentences
All 45 people (100%) received a prison term. The median was 210 months. A quarter received 320 months or more, and a quarter received 135 months or less. 2 people received a life sentence.
The median for all guidelines in fiscal year 2021 was 29 months. For §2A1.2 in fiscal year 2020 it was 210 months, and in fiscal year 2022 it was 218 months.
Where Sentences Fell Against the Range
16 sentences (36%) were within the guideline range. 13 (29%) were below the range at the government's request, and 6 (13%) were below it without a government request. 10 sentences (22%) were above the range.
For fiscal year 2020 under this guideline, 63% were within the range, and for fiscal year 2022 the figure was 48%. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2021, it was 43%.
Mandatory Minimums
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 4 of the 45 people with that information recorded (9%).
Supervised Release, Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
44 people (98%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 60 months. No fine was ordered (0%), and restitution was ordered for 20 people (44%).
On criminal history, 44% were in category I, the lowest, and 11% were in category VI, the highest.
Classification and Table
The Sentencing Guidelines Manual titles §2A1.2 "Second Degree Murder," and the Commission places these cases under the offense type Murder. Fiscal year 2021 ran from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.
The table shows the count, median prison term, and plea rate for each year. The guideline is part of the approved pairing with Article 118 of the UCMJ, covered in the comparison posts.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 52 | 210 months | 88% |
| 2017 | 46 | 229.5 months | 87% |
| 2018 | 47 | 259 months | 83% |
| 2019 | 45 | 180 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 27 | 210 months | 93% |
| 2021 | 45 | 210 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 80 | 218 months | 85% |
| 2023 | 110 | 262 months | 84% |
| 2024 | 105 | 210 months | 90% |
| 2025 | 94 | 251 months | 87% |
What the Records Cannot Show
A median is the middle value when prison terms are listed from shortest to longest, and prison terms are those imposed at sentencing, not time served. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count, so other counts in a case are not described here.
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are missing, so the 100% plea rate is the share of people sentenced, not of everyone charged.
The records do not give reasons for sentences or describe individual cases. A year with 45 people is a modest count.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.2 (45), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2A1.2 Second Degree Murder: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A1.2 Second Degree Murder: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A1.2 Second Degree Murder: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- Is Army Murder Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 118, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- Article 118 Sentences in the Air Force: Confinement and Discharges, 2016–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Has Article 118 Changed in Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial Since 2017? (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 118 Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps? (court-martial data)
- Article 118 (Murder): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 118 UCMJ: Murder (law firm reference page)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.