Federal charges filed anywhere across upstate New York — from the Capital Region through Syracuse and the Mohawk Valley to the Canadian border — land in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. It is a court with its own bench, its own local rules, and a docket shaped by the 32 counties it serves, and it operates nothing like the state courts most New Yorkers know.
We wrote this guide to explain how federal criminal defense actually works in the Northern District of New York: the five cities where the court sits, the judges who preside there, what the U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting in 2026, what the district’s sentencing data shows, and how our firm defends clients in this court. Elizabeth Franklin-Best, P.C. concentrates on federal criminal defense, appeals, and post-conviction litigation nationwide, and we appear in the Northern District of New York through pro hac vice admission. This page belongs to our federal courts directory.
If federal agents have contacted you, or a target letter or grand jury subpoena has arrived from Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, Utica, or Plattsburgh, we offer a paid, one-hour initial consultation to assess where the case stands and what to do next.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: Northern District of New York
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What is the Northern District of New York? | The federal trial court for 32 upstate counties — more than 30,000 square miles reaching the Canadian border — sitting in Albany, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh. |
| Who prosecutes federal cases there? | The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, with roughly 50 federal prosecutors working from Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh. |
| What dominates the district’s docket? | In FY2024, immigration offenses accounted for 40% of the district’s 507 sentencings, followed by drug trafficking (20.1%) and fraud (9.1%), per U.S. Sentencing Commission data. |
| Which circuit hears NDNY appeals? | The Second Circuit; a criminal notice of appeal is generally due within 14 days of the entry of judgment. |
| Where are post-conviction motions filed? | In the district of conviction — a Section 2255 motion attacking an NDNY judgment is filed in the Northern District itself. |
| Can the firm appear in the Northern District of New York? | Yes. We are admitted pro hac vice under the district’s attorney-admission rule, L.R. 83.1, and every engagement begins with a paid, one-hour initial consultation. |
Key Takeaways
- The Northern District of New York serves 32 counties and roughly 3.4 million people, holding court in Albany, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh.
- As of June 2026, the court’s posted roster lists Chief Judge Brenda K. Sannes, four other active district judges, several senior judges, and magistrate judges in each staffed courthouse.
- The district’s long Canadian border shapes its caseload: immigration offenses made up 40% of FY2024 sentencings, well above the 30% national share.
- The U.S. Attorney’s Office fields about 50 prosecutors and in June 2026 announced a revived district-wide Health Care Fraud Task Force.
- 97.8% of NDNY convictions in FY2024 came by guilty plea — only 11 cases were resolved at trial — so charge-and-plea strategy drives most outcomes.
- Appeals go to the Second Circuit, where United States v. Harris (Jan. 14, 2026) confirmed the 14-day criminal appeal deadline is a claim-processing rule rather than jurisdictional — though it should never be tested.
- Section 2255 motions and compassionate-release motions attacking an NDNY sentence are filed in this district; the Second Circuit’s FY2025 compassionate-release grant rate was 27.1%, nearly double the 14.1% national figure.
- We appear in the Northern District pro hac vice under L.R. 83.1 and handle trial, appellate, and post-conviction matters there.
The Northern District of New York at a Glance
Of New York’s four federal districts, the Northern District is by far the largest geographically: 32 counties and more than 30,000 square miles, home to roughly 3.4 million people. Its courthouses sit in Albany, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh, and a criminal case is typically assigned to the seat nearest where the alleged offense occurred — a defendant from the North Country may answer charges in Plattsburgh or Syracuse, while a Capital Region case is usually heard in Albany. To the west, the Western District of New York picks up the Buffalo–Rochester corridor; across Lake Champlain, the District of Vermont covers that state.
Geography drives this district’s criminal work in ways few other Eastern districts experience. Its territory runs along a long stretch of the U.S.–Canada border, which brings Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol, and Homeland Security Investigations activity into the docket daily, and it includes the Fort Drum military installation in Jefferson County. The court sits within the Second Circuit, which reviews its judgments from Manhattan.
Practice in the Northern District follows the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure plus the court’s own Local Rules — which this court, unusually, republishes every year. The current set took effect January 1, 2026, with the Local Criminal Rules collected at Section XI and a dedicated rule (Criminal L.R. 44.2) governing how counsel enter and leave a criminal case. Knowing those local requirements is part of defending a case here competently.
The Bench: Judges of the Northern District
As of June 2026, the court’s published roster lists Chief U.S. District Judge Brenda K. Sannes together with District Judges Mae A. D’Agostino, Anne M. Nardacci, Elizabeth C. Coombe, and Anthony J. Brindisi, and several judges who continue to carry caseloads on senior status, including Judges Frederick J. Scullin Jr., Lawrence E. Kahn, David N. Hurd, and Glenn T. Suddaby. The bench’s backgrounds span both sides of the aisle: Chief Judge Sannes and Judge Coombe each served as career federal prosecutors in this district before appointment, while other members of the court came from civil trial practice and the state bench.
Magistrate judges handle the front end of nearly every NDNY criminal case — initial appearances, detention hearings, and most pretrial proceedings. The court stations them by seat: Judges Daniel J. Stewart and Paul J. Evangelista in Albany, Judges Mitchell J. Katz and Carla B. Freedman in Syracuse, Judge Miroslav Lovric in Binghamton, and Judge Gary L. Favro, a part-time magistrate judge, in Plattsburgh. Notably, Judge Evangelista spent his career with the Federal Public Defender’s office before his January 2025 appointment, and Judge Freedman — appointed February 11, 2026 — served as this district’s U.S. Attorney from 2021 to 2025.
For a defendant, the practical point is this: which courthouse a case lands in determines which judges will decide bail, suppression, and ultimately sentence. We study the assigned judge’s standing orders and practices in every Northern District engagement, because the court publishes individual judges’ rules and expects counsel to follow them.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Its Priorities
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York employs roughly 50 Assistant U.S. Attorneys working from staffed offices in Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh. As of mid-2026, the office is led by First Assistant U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III. Its footprint mirrors the court’s: prosecutors in each seat handle the cases their region generates, from border interdictions in the north to fraud and public-program cases in the Capital Region.
Two 2026 developments signal where this office is heading. In June 2026 it announced the revival of a district-wide Health Care Fraud Task Force, coordinating criminal and civil enforcement against billing fraud across upstate New York — a clear warning to providers, practice owners, and billing companies in the district. The same month, the office announced the final sentencing in a Homeland Security Task Force prosecution that convicted eleven defendants for a drug-trafficking organization supplying methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin to New York’s Southern Tier; the lead defendant received 188 months, and the investigation seized more than 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine and over 65 firearms. Multi-agency task-force cases of that scale — built on wiretaps, controlled buys, and financial tracing — are a staple of this district’s drug docket.
The border adds a third constant. With ports of entry and Border Patrol sectors across the district’s northern tier, immigration and smuggling offenses are prosecuted here at a rate few eastern districts match — 40% of the district’s FY2024 sentencings, against a 30% national share. Anyone under investigation by HSI, CBP, or the DEA in upstate New York should assume the case is being built for federal court, not state court.
Federal Criminal Cases in the District
The mix of cases here reflects the district’s geography and economy: drug-trafficking conspiracies moving product along the I-81 and I-90 corridors, firearms charges attached to those cases, border and smuggling offenses, and a steady stream of white-collar and fraud prosecutions — health-care billing, government-program fraud, and tax cases — concentrated around Albany and Syracuse.
Whatever the charge, an NDNY case follows the federal sequence. It usually starts with agency investigation — sometimes announced by a target letter or grand jury subpoena — and moves to formal charging by indictment. The initial appearance and arraignment typically happen before a magistrate judge in the seat where the case is filed, followed by discovery, pretrial motions, and resolution by plea agreement or trial, then sentencing. Our federal criminal process hub explains each stage.
At every one of those stages we are testing the government’s case — challenging stops and searches that often originate near the border, litigating suppression where wiretap or financial evidence was improperly gathered, negotiating from a documented mitigation record, and preparing for trial when the evidence or the offer demands it.
Applied Insight: In a district where 97.8% of convictions come by guilty plea, the decisive litigation usually happens before anyone reaches a courtroom — in charging negotiations, suppression motions, and Guidelines positioning. Treat the first contact from a federal agent in upstate New York as the start of the case, because by the time an indictment is returned in Albany or Syracuse, much of the government’s work is already done.
What the District’s Sentencing Data Shows
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s FY2024 Statistical Information Packet for the Northern District of New York reports 507 sentenced individuals. The composition is distinctive: immigration offenses led at 40.0% (203 cases) — well above the 30.0% national share — followed by drug trafficking at 20.1% (102), fraud, theft, and embezzlement at 9.1% (46), and firearms at 6.7% (34). Child sexual abuse material (5.3%) and sexual abuse (5.5%) cases also ran above their national shares, while money laundering (2.4%) and tax (1.4%) rounded out the white-collar side of the docket.
Resolution patterns matter as much as offense mix. Of the district’s FY2024 cases, 97.8% ended in guilty pleas; just 11 went to trial. Sentencing therefore turns on the advisory Guidelines framework the Supreme Court established in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220 (2005), and Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) — and on which recent amendments apply. Amendment 821’s status-point and zero-point changes (retroactive) and Amendment 827’s incorporation of the intended-loss rule into §2B1.1 (effective November 1, 2024) both move real Guideline ranges in the fraud and drug cases this district sentences, while the Commission’s November 2025 simplification package is not retroactive.
For our clients, the data carries two lessons. First, in a heavy plea district, the Guidelines calculation and the §3553(a) presentation are where sentencing outcomes are actually won. Second, the small trial count cuts both ways: prosecutors here resolve cases, but they also try the ones they keep — so a defense that is genuinely trial-ready changes the negotiation.
Appeals and Post-Conviction Matters
Sentencing in Albany or Syracuse is not the last word. Convictions and sentences from this district are reviewed by the Second Circuit, and under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(b) the criminal notice of appeal is generally due within 14 days of the entry of judgment. The Second Circuit held in United States v. Harris, No. 22-2717 (2d Cir. Jan. 14, 2026), that this deadline is a claim-processing rule rather than a jurisdictional bar — but the safe course in every NDNY case is to file within the 14 days and litigate from strength, not from forfeiture arguments.
Collateral attacks come back to this district: a motion under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 challenging an NDNY conviction is filed in the Northern District itself, as is a compassionate release motion under § 3582(c)(1)(A). On the latter, the law moved twice recently. The Second Circuit’s United States v. Brooker, 976 F.3d 228 (2d Cir. 2020), gave district judges broad discretion to identify extraordinary and compelling reasons, and in FY2025 the circuit granted 27.1% of compassionate-release motions — nearly twice the 14.1% national rate. But the Supreme Court’s decision in Rutherford v. United States (May 28, 2026) now forecloses reliance on nonretroactive changes in sentencing law as extraordinary and compelling, so NDNY motions must be built on health, age, family circumstances, and other permissible grounds. Appellate and post-conviction litigation is the core of our practice, and because it is governed by national law, we handle it for clients sentenced in this district from anywhere.
How the Firm Practices in This Court
Our route into the Northern District is the one the court itself provides: pro hac vice admission under its attorney-admission rule, L.R. 83.1, which allows a qualified out-of-district attorney to appear in a specific case. Once admitted, counsel files a criminal appearance under Criminal L.R. 44.2 and practices on equal footing with local counsel — the same Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, the same Guidelines, the same Second Circuit precedent.
That framework exists because federal criminal law is national, and the lawyers who concentrate in it cross district lines as a matter of course. What changes from district to district is local knowledge — the annually republished NDNY local rules, the standing orders of the assigned judge, the rhythms of a five-seat court — and we treat mastering those details as part of the representation, not an afterthought.
Elizabeth Franklin-Best leads the defense in every engagement. She is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and all twelve federal circuits, including the Second; she is recognized in The Best Lawyers in America 2026 as a “Best Lawyer” in Appellate Practice; and Chambers USA 2026 ranks her for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations. She is also the author of Reversing Your Criminal Conviction, a practitioner’s guide to federal post-conviction work, and her docket runs deep: more than 330 federal proceedings to date, including over 100 appeals across the federal circuits, handled pro hac vice from one coast to the other. For someone facing federal charges between Binghamton and the border, that combination — appellate depth behind trial-level defense — is what protects the record at every stage.
Frequently Asked Questions
What area does the Northern District of New York cover?
The district takes in 32 counties of northern and central New York — more than 30,000 square miles and roughly 3.4 million people, including a long stretch of the Canadian border. Court is held in Albany, Syracuse, Utica, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh.
Who prosecutes federal crimes in the Northern District of New York?
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York, which fields about 50 federal prosecutors across offices in Albany, Syracuse, Binghamton, and Plattsburgh. As of mid-2026 its announced enforcement themes include drug-trafficking task-force cases, border-related offenses, and a revived district-wide Health Care Fraud Task Force.
Which appeals court covers the Northern District of New York?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which also hears appeals from Connecticut, Vermont, and New York’s three other federal districts. A criminal notice of appeal is generally due within 14 days of judgment; the Second Circuit’s January 2026 Harris decision treats that deadline as a strict claim-processing rule rather than a jurisdictional bar.
How does a federal criminal case proceed in the Northern District of New York?
Most NDNY cases begin with a federal investigation, followed by indictment and an initial appearance before a magistrate judge in the seat where the case is filed. Discovery and pretrial motions come next, and nearly all cases resolve short of trial — 97.8% of the district’s FY2024 convictions came by guilty plea — before sentencing under the advisory Guidelines.
Can an out-of-state lawyer represent me in the Northern District of New York?
Yes. The district’s attorney-admission rule, L.R. 83.1, allows qualified out-of-district counsel to be admitted pro hac vice for a specific case, with appearances in criminal matters governed by Criminal L.R. 44.2. Federal criminal law is the same in every district, so experienced federal defenders appear across district lines routinely.
Does the firm handle federal cases in the Northern District of New York?
Yes. We defend NDNY cases at the trial level through pro hac vice admission and handle Second Circuit appeals, Section 2255 motions, and compassionate-release litigation arising from the district’s judgments. Elizabeth Franklin-Best is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and all twelve federal circuits.
Who is the chief judge of the Northern District of New York?
As of June 2026, the court’s posted roster lists Brenda K. Sannes as Chief U.S. District Judge. The active bench also includes District Judges Mae A. D’Agostino, Anne M. Nardacci, Elizabeth C. Coombe, and Anthony J. Brindisi, with magistrate judges stationed in each of the court’s five seats.
What federal crimes are most common in the Northern District of New York?
U.S. Sentencing Commission data for FY2024 show immigration offenses leading the district at 40% of its 507 sentencings, followed by drug trafficking (20.1%), fraud and theft (9.1%), and firearms (6.7%). The district’s long border with Canada is the single biggest influence on that mix.
Where is a 2255 motion or compassionate-release motion filed after an NDNY conviction?
In the Northern District of New York itself — collateral motions return to the district of conviction, not to the appeals court. Courts in the Second Circuit granted 27.1% of compassionate-release motions in FY2025, nearly double the national rate, though after the Supreme Court’s 2026 Rutherford decision such a motion can no longer rest on nonretroactive changes in sentencing law.
Talk With a Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer
Whether the problem is a target letter in Albany, an indictment in Syracuse, a Second Circuit appeal, or a Section 2255 motion attacking an NDNY judgment, the next step is the same: a paid, one-hour initial consultation in which we review the record and lay out the realistic options.