§2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2022
Only 5 of the 13 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.3 in fiscal year 2022 (38%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 5 was 15 months. 12 of the 13 (92%) pleaded guilty, and 2 people (15%) received probation only.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury › §2J1.3: FY2022
In brief: Only 5 of the 13 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.3 in fiscal year 2022 (38%) received a prison term. The median prison term among those 5 was 15 months. 12 of the 13 (92%) pleaded guilty, and 2 people (15%) received probation only.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 13 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 Small Group With a Low Prison Rate
In fiscal year 2022, 13 people were sentenced in federal court with §2J1.3 as the primary guideline. The Guidelines Manual titles that guideline "Perjury or Subornation of Perjury; Bribery of Witness."
5 of the 13 (38%) were sentenced to prison. For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025 under this guideline, 60% were sent to prison, so the 2022 share was lower. 2 people (15%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
With only 5 people sent to prison, every percentage and median for this year rests on very few cases.
Length of the Prison Terms
The median prison term among the 5 was 15 months. A quarter received 15 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less. The median for all years together was 12 months, so the 2022 median was higher.
5 people (38%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, and the median term was 36 months. No mandatory minimum prison term applied to any of the 13.
Pleas
12 of the 13 people (92%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. Among the guilty pleas, 92% had a written plea agreement and 8% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The Commission data gives no median prison term for the trial case or the plea group separately, so the data cannot be used to compare trial and plea sentences for this year.
Sentences Against the Guideline Range
Of the 13 sentences, 6 (46%) were within the guideline range, which is the range the Manual calculates for each case. Another 2 (15%) were below the range because the government asked for it. 5 (38%) were below the range with no such request, and none were above it.
Under this guideline in all years, 32% of sentences were within the range. The 2022 figure was higher. Across all federal sentences in fiscal year 2022, the figure was 42%.
Fines, Restitution, and Criminal History
Fines were ordered for 4 of the people (31%) and restitution for 1 (8%). In criminal history, 77% fell in category I, the lowest, and 0% in category VI, the highest.
The military records have no criminal history field, so there is nothing in them to set beside this.
Neighboring Years and All Federal Cases
The fiscal year began October 1, 2021 and ended September 30, 2022. The year before, 2021, had 18 people, a median prison term of 12 months, and 33% within the range. The year after, 2023, had 15 people, a median of 14 months, and 27% within the range.
For everyone sentenced in federal court in 2022, under all guidelines, the Commission counts 64,142 people. Their median prison term was 30 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. The yearly table below shows the count, median, and plea rate for 2016 through 2025.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 40 | 8 months | 90% |
| 2017 | 36 | 12 months | 92% |
| 2018 | 29 | 12 months | 93% |
| 2019 | 21 | 10 months | 86% |
| 2020 | 20 | 11 months | 95% |
| 2021 | 18 | 12 months | 94% |
| 2022 | 13 | 15 months | 92% |
| 2023 | 15 | 14 months | 93% |
| 2024 | 20 | 7.1 months | 90% |
| 2025 | 13 | 4 months | 92% |
What These Records Cannot Show
Only people who were convicted and sentenced are in this data. Acquittals and dismissals are absent, and each prison term is the term imposed rather than time served. The Commission files these cases under "Administration of Justice."
13 people cannot show a trend, and the records give no reason for the small group. No close court-martial counterpart exists in the approved crosswalk, so only federal numbers appear.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2022 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2J1.3 (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)
- §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2021 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: 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
- 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.