§2A1.4 Involuntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
The median prison term under §2A1.4 in fiscal year 2022 was 41 months (3.4 years), higher than the 37 months for the guideline across all years and the 30 months for all guidelines that year. 39 people were sentenced, and 37 (95%) went to prison.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2A1.4 Involuntary Manslaughter › §2A1.4: FY2022
In brief: The median prison term under §2A1.4 in fiscal year 2022 was 41 months (3.4 years), higher than the 37 months for the guideline across all years and the 30 months for all guidelines that year. 39 people were sentenced, and 37 (95%) went to prison.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 39 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022. 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 Median of 41 Months
For fiscal year 2022, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 39 people whose primary guideline was §2A1.4, titled "Involuntary Manslaughter" in the Guidelines Manual. 37 (95%) were sentenced to prison, and 2 (5%) received probation only.
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 41 months (3.4 years). A quarter received 60 months or more, and a quarter received 30 months or less.
Fiscal year 2021 had a median of 18 months and fiscal year 2023 had a median of 37 months. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2022, the median prison term was 30 months.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 41 | 36 months | 95% |
| 2017 | 43 | 37 months | 98% |
| 2018 | 38 | 37 months | 97% |
| 2019 | 47 | 37 months | 94% |
| 2020 | 26 | 38 months | 88% |
| 2021 | 28 | 18 months | 96% |
| 2022 | 39 | 41 months | 97% |
| 2023 | 42 | 37 months | 90% |
| 2024 | 60 | 32 months | 87% |
| 2025 | 48 | 46 months | 96% |
Supervised Release and Mandatory Minimums
36 people (92%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison. The median term was 36 months. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 39 people with that information recorded.
Guilty Pleas and the One Trial Conviction
38 of the 39 people (97%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. The median prison term after a guilty plea was 39 months. The person convicted at trial received 51 months. One person is too few to compare trial and plea sentences.
79% of the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and 21% were straight pleas with no agreement.
Position Against the Guideline Range
16 people (41%) were within the range, and 10 (26%) were above it. 8 (21%) were below it without a government request, and 5 (13%) were below it at the government's request.
The within-range share was 43% in fiscal year 2021 and 43% in fiscal year 2023. For every guideline in fiscal year 2022 it was 42%, and for this guideline across all years it was 45%.
Criminal History, Fines, and Restitution
72% of the group were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 3% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Restitution was ordered for 20 people (51%), and no fine was ordered for any of the 39.
Wider Context
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 412 people were sentenced under §2A1.4, and 93% went to prison. All guidelines combined in fiscal year 2022 covered 64,142 people, with 97% guilty pleas.
The approved crosswalk pairs this guideline with Article 119 of the UCMJ, and the comparison posts cover that pairing. This post gives the federal numbers alone.
Limits
Fiscal year 2022 ran from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. The Commission files these cases under the offense type Manslaughter and counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served. Individual cases are not described.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.4 (39), 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.
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)
- §2A1.4 Involuntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A1.4 Involuntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A1.4 Involuntary Manslaughter: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023 (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.