§2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021
In fiscal year 2021, 28 people were sentenced in federal court under §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter," with a median prison term of 91 months (7.6 years). A total of 39% of sentences (11 people) were above the guideline range, and none of the 28 was in the highest criminal history category.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter › §2A1.3: FY2021
In brief: In fiscal year 2021, 28 people were sentenced in federal court under §2A1.3, "Voluntary Manslaughter," with a median prison term of 91 months (7.6 years). A total of 39% of sentences (11 people) were above the guideline range, and none of the 28 was in the highest criminal history category.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 28 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.
Sentences Above and Within the Range
The Guidelines Manual calculates a range for each case. In fiscal year 2021, 11 of the 28 sentences (39%) were above it. Another 10 (36%) were within it. Below the range were 4 (14%) at the government's request and 3 (11%) without a request.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 46% of sentences were within the range. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2021, 43% were. The 36% here is lower than both. The previous year had 67% within the range, and the next year had 43%.
The records do not show the reasons for sentences above or below the range, so these shares describe where sentences fell and nothing more.
Prison Term Lengths
All 28 people (100%) received a prison term. The median was 91 months. A quarter of the group received 78 months or less, and a quarter received 120.2 months or more.
The median across all years of this guideline is 99 months, and the median for everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021 was 29 months. Fiscal year 2021 ran from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021. The previous year had a median of 100.5 months, and the next had 107.5 months.
Prison terms here are the terms imposed, not time served. The median is the middle value among the 28 terms.
| 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% |
Criminal History Categories
The Commission sorts people into criminal history categories. In this group, 46% were in category I, the lowest, and 0% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial files have no criminal history field.
The sheet does not break out the middle categories for this year.
Pleas, Plea Agreements, and One Trial
A total of 27 people (96%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. The median prison term was 90 months after a guilty plea. The trial conviction carried 144 months, a single case.
Every guilty plea (100%) had a written plea agreement, and 0% were straight pleas.
A straight plea is a guilty plea without a written agreement with the government. None occurred among the guilty pleas this year.
Mandatory Minimums, Money Orders, and Supervised Release
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 4 of the 28 people (14%). Restitution was ordered for 16 people (57%), and a fine for 2 (7%). Restitution is money ordered paid to a victim.
All 28 were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months.
Scope and the Military Pairing
The Commission filed these cases under Manslaughter. The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 119 of the UCMJ, and the comparison posts cover that pairing. The data leave out acquittals and dismissals, and the terms are imposed terms, not time served. One year of 28 cases does not show a trend.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2021 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.3 (28), 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 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A1.3 Voluntary Manslaughter: 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
- 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.