§2A1.5 Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018
Only 24 people were sentenced in federal court under §2A1.5, "Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder," in fiscal year 2018. For 12 of them (50%) the sentence was within the guideline range, a higher share than the 30% for all years of this guideline. The median prison term was 120 months (10 ye
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In brief: Only 24 people were sentenced in federal court under §2A1.5, "Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder," in fiscal year 2018. For 12 of them (50%) the sentence was within the guideline range, a higher share than the 30% for all years of this guideline. The median prison term was 120 months (10 years).
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 24 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 Small Year With More Within-Range Sentences
Fiscal year 2018 is a small group for this guideline, with 24 people. Of those, 12 (50%) were sentenced within the range the Guidelines Manual calculated. A total of 7 (29%) were below it at the government's request, and 5 (21%) were below it without a request. No sentence was above the range.
The share for all years under this guideline is 30%. For all guidelines in fiscal year 2018, it is 51%. In the previous fiscal year, 20% of sentences under this guideline were within the range, and in the next, 43% were. The 50% in 2018 is higher than each of those.
A change from one year to the next in a group this small is not enough to describe a pattern.
Sentence Lengths and How Cases Ended
Everyone in the group went to prison. The median term was 120 months. One-fourth of the group received 95.2 months or less, and one-fourth received 236.2 months or more.
Pleading guilty was the route for 19 people (79%), and 5 were convicted at trial. Guilty pleas carried a median of 114 months. Trial convictions carried a median of 360 months, which rests on just 5 people.
Of the guilty pleas, 89% involved a written agreement. The other 11% were straight pleas, which means the person pleaded guilty without a written agreement with the government.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 38 | 120 months | 87% |
| 2017 | 49 | 108 months | 80% |
| 2018 | 24 | 120 months | 79% |
| 2019 | 46 | 124.7 months | 74% |
| 2020 | 34 | 120 months | 94% |
| 2021 | 22 | 144 months | 86% |
| 2022 | 27 | 120 months | 89% |
| 2023 | 23 | 78 months | 96% |
| 2024 | 43 | 120 months | 81% |
| 2025 | 33 | 106 months | 76% |
Mandatory Minimums and Supervised Release
A mandatory minimum applied to 2 of the 24 people (8%). A mandatory minimum is a floor for the prison term set by law. Supervised release was ordered for all 24, with a median of 36 months, and 1 person (4%) received it for life. Supervised release is the period of court supervision that follows prison.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
Fines went to 3 people (13%), and restitution to 4 (17%). Criminal history category I, the lowest, covered 29% of the group, and category VI, the highest, covered 21%. Court-martial files have no matching field.
Context From Other Years
The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. The year before had 49 people and a median of 108 months, and the year after had 46 people and a median of 124.7 months. Across every guideline in fiscal year 2018, the median prison term was 24 months.
The Commission filed these cases under Murder. The approved crosswalk gives this guideline no court-martial pairing, so this post stays with federal numbers.
What Cannot Be Read From the Numbers
Acquittals and dismissals are outside the data, and the terms are those imposed, not time served. The files give no reason for any sentence below the range.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2A1.5 (24), 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)
- §2A1.5 Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2A1.5 Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2A1.5 Conspiracy or Solicitation to Commit Murder: 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
- 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.