Air Force Courts-Martial, February 2020: The Month in Review
The Air Force tried 23 courts-martial in February 2020. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 81% of the cases with charge lists, compared with 51% across the Air Force for all of 2020. The median confinement was 3 months.
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Trends › By Year › February 2020
Short answer: The Air Force tried 23 courts-martial in February 2020. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 81% of the cases with charge lists, compared with 51% across the Air Force for all of 2020. The median confinement was 3 months.
Drug Charges in Most Cases
Charges are listed for 16 of the 23 cases. In 13 of them, the charges included Article 112a, wrongful use or possession of controlled substances. That 81% share compares with 51% for the Air Force over the full year.
Article 134, the general article, was the next most common charge, in 25% of cases. That is slightly higher than the 22% for the year. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation), Article 107 (false official statements), Article 86 (AWOL), and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 12% of the listed cases.
Article 85, desertion, and Article 131b, obstructing justice, each appeared in 1 case. A case with several charges counts under each article, so the shares overlap. Air Force records rarely list charges when a case ends in a full acquittal. These shares therefore mostly describe cases with a conviction.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 13 | 81% | 51% |
| Art. 134 General article | 4 | 25% | 22% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 2 | 12% | 16% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 12% | 8% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 2 | 12% | 8% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 2 | 12% | 17% |
| Art. 85 Desertion | 1 | 6% | 1% |
| Art. 131b Obstructing justice | 1 | 6% | 3% |
Short Terms of Confinement
Confinement was part of 94% of the 16 convictions. The median confinement was 3 months, slightly lower than the 4-month median across the Air Force in 2020. A quarter of the terms were 4 months or longer.
Few terms in the month were long. The upper quarter of terms started at 4 months, which is less than the one-year cap on a special court-martial. These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial, and they cover all charges of conviction in a case. Plea-agreement caps, clemency, and appeals can reduce them later.
Fewer Punitive Discharges
Of 16 convicted enlisted members, 6 received a punitive discharge: 5 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. Across the Air Force in 2020, the share was 50%.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These trial records do not include administrative separations.
Pleas Are Missing From Most Records
Only 10 of the 23 records note a plea. Of those 10, 9 were contested and 1 was a guilty plea. A contested case is one with a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The contested share was 90%, compared with 48% for the Air Force in 2020.
The plea is missing from most of the records. The 90% figure therefore describes the cases with a recorded plea, not necessarily the whole month.
Compared With February 2019
February 2019 had 32 cases, and February 2020 had 23. The median confinement went from 4 months to 3 months. Convictions with confinement went from 85% to 94%.
Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 59% to 38%. General courts-martial went from 47% of cases to 30%. The earlier month has no contested share on record. A few cases can change monthly figures like these, so they show direction rather than precise change. The records cannot show what caused the changes.
| February 2019 | February 2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 32 | 23 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | — | 90% |
| Convictions with confinement | 85% | 94% |
| Median confinement | 4 months | 3 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 59% | 38% |
| General courts-martial | 47% | 30% |
Mostly Special Courts-Martial
Of the 23 cases, 7 (30%) were general courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. The rest were special courts-martial. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year. Since 2019, a special court-martial tried by a military judge alone is capped at six months with no punitive discharge.
Most of the month's cases were therefore tried at the lower court level, where the law limits confinement and discharges.
Rank and Forum
Of the accused, 16 were junior enlisted, 7 were NCOs, and none were officers. That group was more junior than the Air Force overall in 2020.
Members decided 43% of the cases with a forum listed: 5 with enlisted panels and 4 with officer panels. A military judge alone decided the other 12. The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel decides guilt. Guilty pleas rarely go before a panel, so members mostly hear contested cases.
Installations and Limits of the Records
JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, tried 3 cases. Tinker AFB, Oklahoma, RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, and Shaw AFB, South Carolina, each tried 2, and Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, tried 1. Those 5 installations account for 43% of the month's cases. Larger bases try more cases of every kind.
The records list trial dates, not offense dates. They do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative actions. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Air Force records rarely list charges in full acquittals and do not report plea agreements.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial with a trial date in February 2020 (23 cases), compared with the whole year.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial, January 2020: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- March 2020 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 19 Cases (previous / next)
- Air Force Courts-Martial in 2020: Year in Review (the whole year)
- Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2018: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2019: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2018: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2020: The Month in Review
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.