§2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016
In fiscal year 2016, 27 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter." All 27 received a prison term, and the median was 108 months (9 years). Restitution was ordered for 15 of them (56%), and 37% of sentences were above the guideline range.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter › §2A1.3: FY2016
In brief: In fiscal year 2016, 27 people were sentenced in federal court under guideline §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter." All 27 received a prison term, and the median was 108 months (9 years). Restitution was ordered for 15 of them (56%), and 37% of sentences were above the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 27 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016. 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.
Prison Terms for 27 People
Every person in this group received a prison term, and none received probation only. The median prison term was 108 months. A quarter of the group received 79 months or less, and a quarter received 123.5 months or more.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, the median is 99 months. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016, under every guideline, the median was 24 months. Fiscal year 2016 ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 27 | 108 months | 96% |
| 2017 | 30 | 113.5 months | 93% |
| 2018 | 23 | 83 months | 96% |
| 2019 | 27 | 96 months | 96% |
| 2020 | 12 | 100.5 months | 92% |
| 2021 | 28 | 91 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 40 | 107.5 months | 88% |
| 2023 | 43 | 97 months | 91% |
| 2024 | 50 | 109 months | 86% |
| 2025 | 45 | 111.5 months | 96% |
Sentences Above the Range Were Common
The Guidelines Manual calculates a sentencing range for each case. In 14 of the 27 cases (52%), the sentence was within that range. In 10 cases (37%), it was above the range. Below the range were 2 sentences (7%) at the government's request and 1 (4%) without a request.
Over all years of this guideline, 46% of sentences were within the range. Across every guideline in fiscal year 2016, the share was 49%. The 37% above the range here is a large share for a single category, and the records do not show the reasons for those sentences.
Restitution and Other Orders
Restitution is money a court orders paid to a victim. It was ordered for 15 people (56%) in this group. No fine was ordered (0%).
Supervised release followed prison for 26 people (96%), with a median term of 36 months.
Restitution is the more common money order in this group. The sheet does not say what the amounts were.
One Trial Conviction
A total of 26 people (96%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 104 months. The 1 trial conviction carried 300 months, which is a single case and says little on its own.
Every guilty plea (100%) came with a written plea agreement. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 of the 26 people with that information recorded (4%).
The year is also one of the larger groups before the 2020 drop to 12 people, which the yearly table shows.
Criminal History
The Commission sorts people into criminal history categories. Category I, the lowest, held 48% of this group. Category VI, the highest, held 4%. Court-martial files have no criminal history field.
The Next Year and the Military Pairing
The following fiscal year, 2017, had 30 people under this guideline, a median of 113.5 months, and 33% of sentences within the range.
The Commission classed these 27 cases as Manslaughter. The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 119 of the UCMJ, and the comparison posts cover that pairing. This post reports the federal numbers alone.
What the Data Cannot Show
Only people who were convicted and sentenced appear. Acquittals and dismissals are not in the files, and the prison terms are those imposed, not time served.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2016 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.3 (27), 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)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- Guilty Pleas in Army Manslaughter Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Navy-Marine Corps Article 119 Cases by the Numbers, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Manslaughter Conviction? (court-martial data)
- Article 119 (Manslaughter): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 119 UCMJ: Voluntary and Involuntary Manslaughter (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.