Pleading Guilty to Article 109 in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed?

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Based on 11 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Every Sentence Included Confinement

Confinement was part of 100% of the 11 convictions. The median confinement was 6 months, which means half of the terms were 6 months or less. In all Air Force guilty pleas in those years, the median was 4 months. A quarter of the confinement terms here were 9 months or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial. They come before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence also covers every charge in the case, not only the Article 109 charge.

Punitive Discharges for 8 of 10 Enlisted Members

Among 10 enlisted members convicted, 8 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (80%). Across all Air Force guilty pleas in those years, the rate was 60%. None of the 8 discharges here were dishonorable.

1 convicted officer appears in this group, and that officer was dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Article 109 Never Appeared Alone

All 11 cases charged at least one other article. Article 92 (orders violation) was the most common, in 7 cases. Article 134 (general article) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 4.

Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019; drunken or reckless driving since) appeared in 3 cases. Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) also appeared in 3.

Rank and Court Level

By rank, 9 of the accused were junior enlisted, 1 was an NCO, and 1 was an officer. This group was more junior than all Air Force guilty pleas in those years.

Special courts-martial heard 8 of the cases and general courts-martial heard 3. The general court-martial share was 27%, compared with 43% for all Air Force guilty pleas. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Trial Years and Forum

The trials ran from March 2020 through July 2025: 2 in 2020, 2 in 2021, 3 in 2022, 1 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 2 in 2025. None appear from 2016 through 2019. Air Force records from those years rarely list a guilty plea, so earlier guilty pleas may not be counted here.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone decided guilt in 11 of 11 cases with the forum listed.

Rules in Effect

Every trial in this group came after January 1, 2019, when the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect, but offenses committed before that date kept the old rules. The act introduced written plea agreements, fixed panel sizes, and a judge-alone special court-martial with a six-month confinement limit and no punitive discharge.

In December 2023 the rules shifted again. Covered offenses, among them murder, domestic violence, and sexual assault, now go to special trial counsel for the prosecution decision, starting December 28, 2023. Sentencing parameters set by the military judge apply only where each guilty finding rests on an offense after December 27, 2023. Without offense dates, the records cannot sort the 2024 and 2025 trials into old-rule and new-rule cases.

Limits of the Records

Air Force records never report plea agreements, so the terms of any agreement are unknown. The records also do not describe the evidence or include cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.