Article 118 Sentences in the Air Force: Confinement and Discharges, 2016–2025

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Based on 10 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Length of Confinement

All 10 sentences included confinement. The median was 32 years. A quarter of the sentences were 35 years or longer, and 2 were life sentences. For comparison, the median confinement across all Air Force convictions from 2016 to 2025 was 4 months.

These figures are adjudged sentences. They were set at trial and do not reflect any later plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge of which the accused was convicted.

Dishonorable Discharges

Each of the 10 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge (100%), and all 10 were dishonorable discharges. Across all Air Force convictions in those years, 56% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge.

A dishonorable discharge is the most severe discharge a court-martial can impose on an enlisted member. Only a general court-martial can adjudge it.

Members Decided 4 of the 10 Cases

Members decided guilt in 4 cases, or 40% of those with the forum listed: 2 enlisted panels and 2 officer panels. A military judge alone decided the other 6.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. The records here do not reliably show how each accused pleaded, because Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea.

Other Articles in the Same Cases

6 of the 10 cases included at least one other article. Article 112a (drug), Article 128 (assault), and Article 134 (general article) each appeared in 2. Article 120 (sexual assault) and Article 120c (indecent recording and exposure) each appeared in 1.

Rank and Timing

All 10 accused were junior enlisted members. No NCOs or officers appear in these records. The group was more junior than all Air Force convictions in those years.

The trials ran from July 2016 through August 2022. There was 1 in 2016, 3 in 2017, 2 in 2018, and 1 in each year from 2019 through 2022. The records show no Article 118 convictions in 2023, 2024, or 2025.

Law Changes in This Period

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It fixed panel sizes and brought in written plea agreements. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules.

Article 118 is a covered offense. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute it. None of the convictions on this page were tried after 2022, so none of them fall in that later period.

What the Records Do Not Show

These are cases that reached a court-martial and ended in a conviction. The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they give trial dates, not offense dates. Air Force records rarely list the charges in a full acquittal and never report plea agreements, so this page gives no acquittal figures for this offense.

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

Compare: federal court. Murder: Federal Sentences vs. Air Force Courts-Martial

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.