How Air Force General Article Cases Ended in 2023

Trends › By Offense › Article 134 › Air Force, 2023

Based on 29 cases · 2023 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

A Median of 2 Years

The records for 2023 cover January through October and hold 29 general article cases. Confinement was part of 97% of the 29 convictions, and the median term was 2 years. The Air Force median that year was 5 months.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. They also include every charge in each case, so they describe the whole case, not the Article 134 charge alone.

Sentences by Band

Sentences longer than one year were imposed in 16 of 29 convictions (55%), compared with 23% across the Air Force. All 16 were between 1 and 5 years. None was 5 years or more, compared with 3% of Air Force convictions.

Below one year, 7 convictions (24%) were between 6 months and 1 year, compared with 18% service-wide. Another 5 (17%) were under 6 months, compared with 49%. Only 1 conviction included no confinement. A quarter of terms were 3 years or longer.

Guilty Pleas Rather Than Contested Trials

Of the 29 accused, 23 pleaded guilty and 6 contested at least one charge, meaning they entered a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 21%, much lower than the 53% for all Air Force cases in 2023. With 23 guilty pleas, most of the long terms here followed a guilty plea. The records do not show whether any plea agreement applied to them.

The forum figures follow the same pattern. The accused usually decides whether a military judge alone or a panel of members determines guilt. A military judge alone heard 24 cases. Members heard the other 5: 2 enlisted panels and 3 officer panels. Members heard 17% of cases, compared with 40% across the service.

Which Other Charges Were Filed?

Article 134 was the only charge in 12 of the 29 cases. In the other cases, Article 120b (child sexual abuse) was the most common additional charge, in 5 cases. Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) and Article 115 (communicating threats) appeared in 4 each. Article 120 (sexual assault) and Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 3 each.

Each sentence covers the full case, so those other charges are included in the confinement figures above. The records do not assign confinement to individual charges.

Discharges

Of 28 convicted enlisted members, 22 received a punitive discharge: 8 bad-conduct and 14 dishonorable. The Air Force share in 2023 was 58%. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.

Dishonorable discharges were more common than bad-conduct discharges here, and only a general court-martial can impose them. A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which is not in this data.

Most Cases Were General Courts-Martial

General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 79% of these cases (23 of 29). Special courts-martial, capped at one year of confinement, tried the rest. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, with a cap of six months and no punitive discharge. These records do not report those cases separately.

Changes From 2022

The number of cases went from 42 to 29. The median confinement went from 1.2 years to 2 years. Other measures changed less. The contested share went from 24% to 21%. The enlisted punitive discharge rate went from 82% to 79%. The share with confinement went from 98% to 97%, and the general court-martial share from 81% to 79%. In a group this small, single cases change the figures.

Rank and Location

The accused were 18 junior enlisted members, 10 NCOs, and 1 officer. That rank makeup is similar to all Air Force cases in 2023.

Osan AB, South Korea tried 4 cases and Minot AFB, North Dakota tried 3. JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; Spangdahlem AB, Germany; and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana tried 2 each. These five account for 45% of the 29 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a count alone says little about a base.

What Is Not in the Records

Air Force records rarely list the charges in a full acquittal, so this page gives no Article 134 acquittal rate. Offense dates, evidence, plea agreement terms, and nonjudicial punishment are also not in the data.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 134 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.