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# 33 U.S.C. 1908, Penalties for violations: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-33-usc-1908-case-outcomes/
- Published: 2026-11-03T06:56:13.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-03T06:56:13.000Z
- Description: Private (retained) counsel represented 77 of the 79 federal defendants (97%) whose most serious charge at the end of the case was 33 U.S.C. 1908, in cases that ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Of the 79, 73 (92%) pleaded guilty and 76 (96%) were convicted. Only 11 of the 76 convicted (14%) receiv
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › 33 U.S.C. 1908

**In brief:** Private (retained) counsel represented 77 of the 79 federal defendants (97%) whose most serious charge at the end of the case was 33 U.S.C. 1908, in cases that ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. Of the 79, 73 (92%) pleaded guilty and 76 (96%) were convicted. Only 11 of the 76 convicted (14%) received a prison term on that charge, and the median term was 2 months.

Updated November 3, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025

This post uses the Federal Judicial Center's records of 79 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/).

## A Section Handled Almost Entirely by Retained Lawyers

The U.S. Code heading for Title 33, section 1908 is "Penalties for violations". This post describes the section by that heading alone.

Retained private lawyers handled 77 of the 79 defendants. The other 2 (3%) had a federal public or community defender. No defendant in this group had a CJA panel attorney or represented themselves.

With retained counsel, 94% pleaded guilty, 4% had the charge dismissed, and 2 went to trial. With a federal defender, 1 of 2 pleaded guilty and 1 went to trial. None of those trials ended in an acquittal.

These counts describe groups of cases, not how good any lawyer was. Type of counsel is taken from the end of the case, and people who hire a lawyer often face different charges and circumstances than people with an appointed lawyer. The federal defender group has only 2 defendants.

| Type of counsel at the end of the case | Defendants | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------ |
| Federal public or community defender   | 2          | 1 of 2         | 0 of 2    | 1      | 0 (0 of 1)         |
| Private (retained) counsel             | 77         | 94%            | 4%        | 2      | 0 (0 of 2)         |

## Prison Was Uncommon on This Charge

All 79 cases were felony charges. A prison term on this charge followed in only 11 of the 76 convictions (14%).

For those 11 defendants, counting terms of 1 month or more, the median prison term was 2 months. The median here rests on a small number of terms.

The records count only the term on this section. They do not report what penalty, if any, replaced prison for the other convicted defendants.

## Pleas, Dismissals, and Trials

The Federal Judicial Center counts all defendants whose cases ended, so dismissals are included. A guilty plea ended 73 cases, 3 (4%) were dismissed, and 3 (4%) went to trial.

Of the 3 trials, 2 were before a jury and 1 was a bench trial decided by a judge. All 3 ended without an acquittal.

The number of cases that ended each year was small. Fiscal year 2019 had 14, the most in the period, and fiscal year 2024 had 1\. With counts like these, the yearly table is a record of each year and not evidence of a trend.

| Fiscal year | Cases ended | Pleaded guilty | Dismissed | Trials | Acquitted at trial |
| ----------- | ----------- | -------------- | --------- | ------ | ------------------ |
| 2016        | 10          | 90%            | 10%       | 0      | 0                  |
| 2017        | 8           | 6 of 8         | 2 of 8    | 0      | 0                  |
| 2018        | 9           | 8 of 9         | 0 of 9    | 1      | 0 (0 of 1)         |
| 2019        | 14          | 100%           | 0%        | 0      | 0                  |
| 2020        | 9           | 8 of 9         | 0 of 9    | 1      | 0 (0 of 1)         |
| 2021        | 8           | 7 of 8         | 0 of 8    | 1      | 0 (0 of 1)         |
| 2022        | 2           | 2 of 2         | 0 of 2    | 0      | 0                  |
| 2023        | 10          | 100%           | 0%        | 0      | 0                  |
| 2024        | 1           | 1 of 1         | 0 of 1    | 0      | 0                  |
| 2025        | 8           | 8 of 8         | 0 of 8    | 0      | 0                  |

## What a Dismissal Means Here

In these records a dismissal means the charges were dismissed. That can include a dismissal on the government's motion, such as after the defendant pleaded guilty in a separate case. It is not a finding that the defendant did not commit the offense.

## Limits of the Data

The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this statute, so no military figures appear here.

The data counts cases by the most serious charge left at the end. It does not show the facts behind any charge or the reasons for any plea, dismissal, or verdict.

### 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 33 U.S.C. 1908, any subsection (79), 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article)
- [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts)
- [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method)
- [33 U.S.C. 1319, Enforcement: How Federal Cases Ended, FY2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-statute-33-usc-1319-case-outcomes/) (same title of the U.S. Code)
- [Appointed vs. Retained Lawyers in Federal Criminal Cases: How Cases Ended, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-appointed-vs-retained-counsel-outcomes/)
- [Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-trial-acquittal-rates-vs-courts-martial/)
- [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source)
- [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.