§2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2017
In fiscal year 2017, 13 people were sentenced under §2C1.2. Of the 13, 10 (77%) pleaded guilty and 3 were convicted after a trial, which is a higher trial share than in other years of this guideline. The median prison term was 15 months, and 9 people (69%) received prison terms.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity › §2C1.2: FY2017
In brief: In fiscal year 2017, 13 people were sentenced under §2C1.2. Of the 13, 10 (77%) pleaded guilty and 3 were convicted after a trial, which is a higher trial share than in other years of this guideline. The median prison term was 15 months, and 9 people (69%) received prison terms.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 13 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017. 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.
Trials and Guilty Pleas in Fiscal Year 2017
Of the 13 people sentenced under §2C1.2 in fiscal year 2017, 10 pleaded guilty, which is 77%. In addition, 3 people were convicted after a trial.
The median prison term after a guilty plea was 14.5 months. After a trial it was 24 months. The trial figure is based on 3 people convicted at trial and sent to prison.
A group of 3 is too small to show a general difference between plea and trial sentences. The figures only describe this year.
Prison and Probation
In all, 9 of the 13 people (69%) received a prison term, and 3 (23%) received probation only.
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 15 months. A quarter received 24 months or more, and a quarter received 14 months or less. The top and bottom of that range are closer together than in some other years of this guideline.
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 8 people (62%). The median term was 12 months.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
Below the range without a government request were 8 sentences (62%). Below the range at the government's request were 3 (23%). Within the range were 2 (15%), and none were above it.
For all years of §2C1.2 from fiscal year 2016 to 2025, 19% of sentences were within the range. In fiscal year 2017 the share was lower than that, and lower than the 49% for all guidelines in that year.
No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 13 people with that information recorded.
Fines, Restitution, Plea Agreements, and Criminal History
A fine was ordered for 8 people (62%), and restitution for 4 (31%). Fines were ordered more often than restitution in this year.
Among the guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement. All 13 people were in the lowest criminal history category I and none were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
About the Guideline and the Counting Rules
The Guidelines Manual titles §2C1.2 "Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity". The U.S. Sentencing Commission lists these 13 cases under Bribery/Corruption. Each person is counted once, under the primary guideline, which is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Fiscal year 2017 ran from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017. Only people who were convicted and sentenced appear in the data. Prison terms are the terms imposed, not time served.
Neighboring Years and All Guidelines
In fiscal year 2016, 24 people were sentenced under §2C1.2, with a median prison term of 16.5 months and 17% of sentences within the range. In fiscal year 2018, 10 people were sentenced, with a median of 14 months and 20% within the range.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 112 people were sentenced under this guideline. Of those, 46% went to prison, the median prison term was 12 months, and 96% pleaded guilty. In fiscal year 2017, all guidelines combined covered 66,873 people, with a median prison term of 24 months and 97% guilty pleas. The table lists every year.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 24 | 16.5 months | 100% |
| 2017 | 13 | 15 months | 77% |
| 2018 | 10 | 14 months | 100% |
| 2019 | 7 | 12 months | 7 of 7 |
| 2020 | 8 | 8 months | 8 of 8 |
| 2021 | 13 | 12 months | 92% |
| 2022 | 15 | 8.5 months | 93% |
| 2023 | 12 | 9 months | 100% |
| 2024 | 9 | 24 months | 9 of 9 |
| 2025 | 1 | n/a | 1 of 1 |
Limits
The records do not show the facts of any case, so they cannot explain why 3 people went to trial in this year. The crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the post reports federal numbers alone.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2017 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2C1.2 (13), 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)
- §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2016 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2C1.2 Offering, Giving, Soliciting, or Receiving a Gratuity: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (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.