§2M5.3 Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or For a Terrorist Purpose: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
Among the 17 people sentenced under §2M5.3 in fiscal year 2019, the median prison term was 180 months (15 years). The median after a guilty plea, 184 months, was slightly higher than the median after a trial, 180 months. A mandatory minimum applied to 3 people (18%).
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In brief: Among the 17 people sentenced under §2M5.3 in fiscal year 2019, the median prison term was 180 months (15 years). The median after a guilty plea, 184 months, was slightly higher than the median after a trial, 180 months. A mandatory minimum applied to 3 people (18%).
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 17 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. 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.
Guilty Plea and Trial Medians in Fiscal Year 2019
In fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Sentencing Commission recorded 17 people whose primary guideline was §2M5.3. Of them, 14 (82%) pleaded guilty and 3 were convicted after a trial.
People who pleaded guilty received a median prison term of 184 months. Those convicted at trial received a median of 180 months, based on 3 people. This year, the plea median is the higher one.
A group of 3 is too small for a reliable comparison, so the difference of a few months says little.
All 17 Received Prison
All 17 people (100%) received a prison term, and 0 (0%) received probation only. The median prison term was 180 months (15 years). A quarter received 240 months or more, and a quarter received 96 months or less.
Over fiscal years 2016 to 2025, the median under this guideline was 144 months. The 2019 median is higher than that. The terms are those imposed, not time served. Fiscal year 2019 ran from October 1, 2018 to September 30, 2019.
Mandatory Minimums
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 3 of the 17 people with that information recorded (18%).
The mandatory minimum is set by statute. The records here do not show how much it affected the length of any sentence.
Straight Pleas Were More Common This Year
Among the 14 guilty pleas, 79% had a written plea agreement and 21% were straight pleas with no agreement. A straight plea means the person pleaded guilty without an agreement with the government.
The records do not show why those pleas had no agreement.
Position Against the Guideline Range
Within the range were 4 sentences (24%). Below the range at the government's request were 5 (29%), and below the range without a government request were 8 (47%). None (0%) was above the range.
For all guidelines in fiscal year 2019, 51% of sentences were within the range, and the median prison term was 21 months across 76,538 people.
Supervised Release and Other Terms
After prison, 16 people (94%) were ordered to serve supervised release, with a median term of 120 months. Supervised release for life was ordered for 5 (29%). Restitution was ordered for 1 (6%), and no fine was ordered (0%).
Criminal history category VI, the highest, applied to 88% of the group, and category I, the lowest, to 6%. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
For all fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 165 people were sentenced under §2M5.3. More than 99% were sent to prison, and 82% pleaded guilty. The table shows each year. In fiscal year 2018, 28 people were sentenced, and in fiscal year 2020, 11.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 18 | 210 months | 83% |
| 2017 | 21 | 120 months | 81% |
| 2018 | 28 | 180 months | 82% |
| 2019 | 17 | 180 months | 82% |
| 2020 | 11 | 180 months | 82% |
| 2021 | 10 | 137 months | 70% |
| 2022 | 19 | 180 months | 84% |
| 2023 | 21 | 144 months | 86% |
| 2024 | 9 | 120 months | 8 of 9 |
| 2025 | 11 | 101 months | 82% |
What the Records Cannot Show
The data does not describe conduct in any case. It covers only people who were convicted and sentenced. The approved crosswalk offers no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so the figures here are federal ones.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2M5.3 (17), 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)
- §2M5.3 Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or For a Terrorist Purpose: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2M5.3 Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or For a Terrorist Purpose: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2M5.3 Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or For a Terrorist Purpose: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (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.