16 U.S.C. 703, Taking, killing, or possessing migratory birds unlawful: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 206 federal defendants had a case end with 16 U.S.C. 703 as the most serious remaining charge, and 155 (75%) of those charges were Class A misdemeanors. 178 (86%) pleaded guilty. Only 9 went to trial, and 5 of those 9 trials ended in an acquittal, all of them bench tria
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In brief: In fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 206 federal defendants had a case end with 16 U.S.C. 703 as the most serious remaining charge, and 155 (75%) of those charges were Class A misdemeanors. 178 (86%) pleaded guilty. Only 9 went to trial, and 5 of those 9 trials ended in an acquittal, all of them bench trials decided by a judge.
This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 206 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The series also draws on the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced 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.
Mostly Misdemeanor Cases
The U.S. Code heads section 703 of Title 16 as "Taking, killing, or possessing migratory birds unlawful". No other description of the law is used here.
Most of these charges were not felonies. Class A misdemeanors made up 155 cases (75%), felonies 41 (20%), and petty offenses 10 (5%). Readers should keep that mix in mind, since the possible sentence depends on the level of the charge.
Few Trials, Most of Them Bench Trials
Just 9 defendants (4%) went to trial. Of those, 8 were bench trials, meaning a judge rather than a jury decided the verdict. The single jury trial did not end in an acquittal (0 of 1).
The bench trials ended in 5 acquittals out of 8. Together, 5 of the 9 trials ended in an acquittal. These are very small counts, and a handful of cases can move the share a great deal, so they should not be read as a stable rate.
How the Other Cases Ended
Guilty pleas resolved 178 cases (86%). Charges were dismissed for 19 defendants (9%). The dismissal count includes cases the government dropped, for example after a guilty plea in a different case.
Adding pleas and trial verdicts, 182 of the 206 (88%) were convicted. The Federal Judicial Center counts every defendant whose case ended, so dismissals and acquittals are part of the total.
Prison Time Was Uncommon
Of the 182 convicted, 16 (9%) received a prison term on the section 703 charge. Most convicted defendants received no prison term on that count.
Among the people whose term was 1 month or more, the median was 2 months. That figure covers only the 16 with a prison term. It says nothing about fines or probation, which these records do not report here.
Who Represented the Defendants
Private (retained) counsel appeared for 84 defendants (41%), and 62 defendants (30%) represented themselves. Federal public or community defenders had 32 (16%), and CJA panel attorneys, private lawyers appointed by the court, had 26 (13%).
Guilty pleas were 94% for federal defenders, 96% for CJA panel attorneys, 86% for retained counsel, and 82% for self-represented defendants. Self-represented defendants had the highest dismissal share, at 18%.
Retained counsel handled 7 of the 9 trials, and 5 of those 7 ended in an acquittal. That does not mean one kind of lawyer did better. Defendants who hire a lawyer face different charges and circumstances than those with appointed counsel, so these numbers describe groups of cases, not the quality of lawyers.
| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Federal public or community defender | 32 | 94% | 3% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| CJA panel attorney | 26 | 96% | 0% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| Private (retained) counsel | 84 | 86% | 6% | 7 | 5 (5 of 7) |
| Self-represented | 62 | 82% | 18% | 0 | 0 |
Cases Ending Each Fiscal Year
The yearly count ranged from 6 cases in 2019 to 53 in 2018. Every case that ended in 2021, 2023, and 2024 ended in a guilty plea, while 2020 had 33% dismissed.
Most of the acquittals came early: 4 of 4 trials in 2017 ended that way. No trial ended in an acquittal after 2017. The records do not show why the yearly numbers changed.
| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 22 | 68% | 27% | 1 | 1 (1 of 1) |
| 2017 | 28 | 79% | 7% | 4 | 4 (4 of 4) |
| 2018 | 53 | 94% | 4% | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2019 | 6 | 4 of 6 | 1 of 6 | 1 | 0 (0 of 1) |
| 2020 | 12 | 67% | 33% | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 13 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 10 | 80% | 0% | 2 | 0 (0 of 2) |
| 2023 | 17 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 32 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 13 | 69% | 31% | 0 | 0 |
What Is Not in the Data
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for section 703, so no military comparison is made. The records cannot show the conduct in any case, the evidence at trial, or the reasons a judge acquitted or a prosecutor dismissed.
How We Counted
Every federal defendant whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and whose most serious charge at the end of the case (TTITLE1) was under 16 U.S.C. 703, any subsection (206), Federal Judicial Center, counted as in the federal courts' Table D-4. Type of counsel is TCOUNSEL; labels from the FJC criminal codebook. Section heading from the U.S. Code as published by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel (release point 119-136).
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
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
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.
Type of counsel describes groups of cases, not lawyers. The Federal Judicial Center records the type of counsel at the end of the case. Defendants who hire a lawyer differ from defendants who receive an appointed lawyer in their charges, criminal history, and circumstances, and some defendants change lawyers during a case. Differences in outcomes by type of counsel therefore cannot be credited to the type of lawyer.
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)
- 16 U.S.C. 704, Determination as to when and how migratory birds may be taken, killed, or possessed: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- 16 U.S.C. 1538, Prohibited acts: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025 (same title of the U.S. Code)
- Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?
- 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.