§2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018
Fiscal year 2018 had the lowest median prison term in the yearly table for §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter": 83 months (6.9 years), for 23 people sentenced in federal court. The 1 person convicted at trial had a lower term (56 months) than the median for guilty pleas (90 months), though a single cas
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter › §2A1.3: FY2018
In brief: Fiscal year 2018 had the lowest median prison term in the yearly table for §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter": 83 months (6.9 years), for 23 people sentenced in federal court. The 1 person convicted at trial had a lower term (56 months) than the median for guilty pleas (90 months), though a single case shows little.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 23 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018. 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.
A Lower Median Than in Any Other Year of the Table
All 23 people (100%) received a prison term. The median was 83 months. A quarter of the group received 72 months or less, and a quarter received 144 months or more.
The median over all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline is 99 months. The previous fiscal year, 2017, had a median of 113.5 months, and the next, 2019, had 96 months. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2018, the median was 24 months.
The group is small. The records do not show why this year's median is lower, and one year does not establish a trend.
| 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% |
A Trial Conviction With a Shorter Term
Of the 23 people, 22 (96%) pleaded guilty. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 90 months. One person was convicted after a trial, and that person's term was 56 months.
Here the single trial case allows no statement about how trial and plea sentences compare, because one person cannot represent a group. Among the guilty pleas, 95% had a written plea agreement and 5% were straight pleas. A straight plea means the person pleaded guilty without a written agreement.
Position of Sentences Against the Range
The Guidelines Manual calculates a range for each case. In 10 cases (43%), the sentence was within it. In 8 (35%), it was above the range. In 2 (9%), it was below the range at the government's request, and in 3 (13%), it was below without a request.
Across all years of this guideline, 46% of sentences were within the range. Across every guideline in fiscal year 2018, 51% were. The year before, 33% were within the range, and the year after, 56%.
Mandatory Minimums, Restitution, and Supervised Release
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 3 of the 23 people (13%). Restitution was ordered for 13 people (57%), and no fine was ordered (0%).
All 23 people (100%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months.
Supervised release is the period of court supervision after prison, and restitution is money ordered paid to a victim.
Criminal History and Dates
Category I, the lowest criminal history category, held 57% of the group. Category VI, the highest, held 4%. Court-martial files have no such field.
Fiscal year 2018 ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018.
The year before, 2017, had 30 people under this guideline. The year after, 2019, had 27.
Limits and the Article 119 Pairing
The Commission filed these 23 cases under Manslaughter. The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 119 of the UCMJ, and the comparison posts cover that pairing. Only convicted and sentenced people are in the data, and the terms shown are imposed terms, not time served.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.3 (23), 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)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019 (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.