§2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2023
In fiscal year 2023, 7 of the 15 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.3 (47%) received probation only, and 6 (40%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 14 months. 9 sentences (60%) were below the guideline range without a government request.
· Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury › §2J1.3: FY2023
In brief: In fiscal year 2023, 7 of the 15 people sentenced under guideline §2J1.3 (47%) received probation only, and 6 (40%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 14 months. 9 sentences (60%) were below the guideline range without a government request.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 15 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023. 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.
More Probation Than Prison
The U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 15 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 for cases with §2J1.3 as the primary guideline. For 7 of them (47%), the sentence was probation only, with no prison or other confinement. 6 (40%) were sent to prison.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 60% of the people sentenced under this guideline were sent to prison. The 2023 share was lower.
The Manual's title for the guideline is "Perjury or Subornation of Perjury; Bribery of Witness." The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2022 to September 30, 2023.
How Long the Prison Terms Were
Among the 6 people sent to prison, the median prison term was 14 months. A quarter received 19.8 months or more, and a quarter received 7.5 months or less. The median for all years together was 12 months, so the 2023 median was higher.
6 people (40%) 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 15.
Most Sentences Were Below the Range
The guideline range is the sentencing range the Guidelines Manual produces for a case. 9 of the 15 sentences (60%) were below the range without a government request. 2 (13%) were below it at the government's request. 4 (27%) were within the range, and 0 were above it.
The 27% within the range was lower than the 32% for all years under this guideline and lower than the 42% for all federal cases in fiscal year 2023.
Guilty Pleas
14 of the 15 people (93%) pleaded guilty, and 1 was convicted after a trial. Among those who pleaded guilty, 86% had a written plea agreement, and 14% were straight pleas with no agreement.
This year's data gives no separate median prison terms for plea and trial cases, so it does not allow a comparison of plea and trial sentences.
Fines, Restitution, and Prior Record
3 people (20%) were ordered to pay a fine, and 2 (13%) to pay restitution. 67% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 0% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
The Table and the Years on Either Side
In fiscal year 2022, 13 people were sentenced under §2J1.3, the median prison term was 15 months, and 46% were within the range. In fiscal year 2024, 20 people were sentenced, the median was 7.1 months, and 35% were within the range.
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 under all guidelines, 64,124 people, had a median prison term of 30 months, and 97% pleaded guilty. For this guideline over all years, the total was 225 people, and 92% pleaded guilty. The table shows every year from 2016 to 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% |
Reading the Numbers Carefully
A group of 15 is small, and 6 prison sentences make a thin base for a median. One year should not be read as a trend.
The data leaves out anyone who was acquitted or whose case was dismissed, and prison terms are those imposed, not time served. The Commission files these cases under "Administration of Justice." The crosswalk to military law has no close counterpart here, so the post stays with federal numbers.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2J1.3 (15), 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 2022 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2J1.3 Perjury or Subornation of Perjury: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024 (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.