Federal National Defense Offense Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025
20 people were sentenced for national defense offenses in the Southern District of California in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. All 20 pleaded guilty, and all 20 (100%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 30 months, which is higher than the 24 months for all 94 federal districts.
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In brief: 20 people were sentenced for national defense offenses in the Southern District of California in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. All 20 pleaded guilty, and all 20 (100%) received a prison term. The median prison term was 30 months, which is higher than the 24 months for all 94 federal districts.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 20 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. 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.
Which Guideline Applied to Nearly All of These Cases?
§2M5.2 (Exportation of Arms, Munitions, or Military Equipment or Services Without Required Validated Export License) was the primary guideline in 19 of the 20 cases. The remaining case used §2M5.3 (Providing Material Support or Resources to Designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or For a Terrorist Purpose).
National Defense is the offense type name used by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. All 94 districts together sentenced 2,236 people in it, and 84% were sent to prison.
Prison Terms
Nobody in this group received probation only. The median prison term was 30 months. A quarter received 12.4 months or less, and a quarter received 39.2 months or more. The median is the middle sentence when all 20 are listed from shortest to longest.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 0 of the 20 people. The district-wide median for all offenses was 15 months.
Pleas Were Universal
Guilty pleas were 100% here, with no trials. In this offense type across all districts, 97% pleaded guilty, and across every offense in the district the share was 99%.
Each plea (100%) came with a written plea agreement, and none was a straight plea.
Government Requests for Lower Sentences
15 people (75%) were sentenced below the guideline range at the government's request. 4 (20%) were sentenced within it. 1 (5%) was below the range without a request. 0% were above it.
For this offense type nationwide, 36% of sentences were within the range. For all offenses in this district, 15% were.
After Prison and Prior Record
19 people (95%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison, with a median term of 36 months. 4 (20%) were ordered to pay a fine. 0 (0%) were ordered to pay restitution.
80% were in criminal history category I, the lowest, and 5% were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no such field.
Yearly Counts and Their Limits
The Commission counted 11 people in fiscal years 2016 to 2019 and 9 in fiscal years 2020 to 2025. 8 of the 20 were sentenced in 2016. A fiscal year starts on October 1 and ends the following September.
Yearly medians range from 0 months in 2024 to 155 months in 2023. Those years had 1 and 2 people, so the figures show individual sentences more than any pattern. These cases were less than 1% of the 32,099 people sentenced in the district.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8 | 33 months | 8 of 8 |
| 2017 | 1 | 27 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2018 | 1 | 16.9 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2019 | 1 | 13 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2020 | 2 | 41 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2021 | 1 | 0.3 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2022 | 2 | 16.5 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2023 | 2 | 155 months | 2 of 2 |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 months | 1 of 1 |
| 2025 | 1 | 10.6 months | 1 of 1 |
What Is Not Counted
Only people convicted and sentenced are included. Acquittals and dismissals are not. Prison terms are the terms ordered, which differ from time served.
The district contains Camp Pendleton, Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, and San Diego, whose courts-martial are held in military courts, not in this federal court.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in the Southern District of California (U.S. Sentencing Commission district label "California South") in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 whose offense type was "National Defense" (20). Offense types are the Commission's OFFGUIDE categories.
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)
- Federal Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- Federal Immigration Offense Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Drug Trafficking Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Fraud, Theft, and Embezzlement Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- Federal Money Laundering Sentences in the Southern District of California, FY2016–2025 (same district, other offense type)
- 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.