Air Force Courts-Martial, January 2021: The Month in Review
The Air Force tried 20 courts-martial in January 2021. Of those, 40% were contested, compared with 51% for the Air Force across 2021. The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 4 months for the year, and 11 of 17 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge.
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Trends › By Year › January 2021
Short answer: The Air Force tried 20 courts-martial in January 2021. Of those, 40% were contested, compared with 51% for the Air Force across 2021. The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 4 months for the year, and 11 of 17 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge.
Longer Confinement Than the Year
Confinement was part of 82% of the month's 17 convictions. The median confinement was 7 months, higher than the 4-month median for the Air Force across 2021. A quarter of the terms were 1 year or longer.
These are adjudged sentences: the sentence the court announced at trial for all charges of conviction. Plea-agreement caps, clemency, and appeals can reduce them later, and the records do not track those steps.
Most Punitive Discharges Were Bad-Conduct Discharges
Of 17 convicted enlisted members, 11 received a punitive discharge: 10 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. Across the Air Force in 2021, the punitive discharge share was 56%.
A bad-conduct discharge is the less severe punitive discharge. Either a general or a special court-martial can impose it. Only a general court-martial can impose a dishonorable discharge. No officers were tried this month. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
More Guilty Pleas Than Contested Cases
Every case has a plea recorded: 12 guilty pleas and 8 contested cases. In a contested case, the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 40%, lower than the 51% for the year.
Of the 8 contested cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty on every charge. With only 8 cases, that count is not a reliable rate. Air Force results give one verdict per case, so a partial acquittal appears only when an appeals opinion reports it.
Assault and Property Charges
Charges are listed for 17 of the 20 cases, and a case with three articles appears three times. Article 128, assault, appeared in 35% of cases, compared with 27% for the Air Force in 2021. Article 112a, wrongful use or possession of controlled substances, also appeared in 35%, the same as the yearly share.
Article 109, which covers property other than military and waste, spoilage, or destruction, appeared in 12%, compared with 1% for the year. Article 107 (false official statements) also appeared in 12%, compared with 4%. Article 134 (the general article) appeared in 24%. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) appeared in 12%, lower than the 18% across the Air Force.
Article 114 (endangerment offenses) and Article 121 (larceny) each appeared in 1 case.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 6 | 35% | 27% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 6 | 35% | 35% |
| Art. 134 General article | 4 | 24% | 19% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 2 | 12% | 18% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 12% | 4% |
| Art. 109 Property other than military; waste, spoilage, destruction | 2 | 12% | 1% |
| Art. 114 Endangerment offenses | 1 | 6% | 2% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 1 | 6% | 2% |
Compared With January 2020
January 2020 had 21 cases, and January 2021 had 20. The contested share went from 92% to 40%. The general court-martial share went from 67% to 45%. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict went from 6 of 11 to 3 of 8.
The median confinement went from 4 months to 7 months. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 83% to 65%, and convictions with confinement went from 92% to 82%. With monthly groups this small, a few outcomes can produce large changes. The records cannot show what caused them.
| January 2020 | January 2021 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 21 | 20 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 92% | 40% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 6 of 11 | 3 of 8 |
| Convictions with confinement | 92% | 82% |
| Median confinement | 4 months | 7 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 83% | 65% |
| General courts-martial | 67% | 45% |
Court Level and Rank
There were 9 general and 11 special courts-martial. The general share was 45%, lower than the 53% for the Air Force in 2021. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. Since 2019, a judge-alone special court-martial is capped at six months with no punitive discharge.
Of the accused, 14 were junior enlisted and 6 were NCOs. That group was more junior than the Air Force overall that year.
Who Decided Guilt?
A military judge alone decided 12 cases. Members decided 40%: 4 with enlisted panels and 4 with officer panels. The share for the year was 38%. The accused usually makes the choice. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the split mostly follows how many cases were contested.
Installations and Limits of the Records
Ramstein AB, Germany, tried 2 cases. JB Andrews, Maryland, Buckley SFB, Colorado, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and Ellsworth AFB, South Dakota, tried 1 each. Together these installations account for 30% of the month's cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a base's count alone shows little.
Trial records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not give offense dates, describe the evidence, or report plea terms. They do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations. Air Force records also rarely list charges in full acquittals.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial with a trial date in January 2021 (20 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, December 2020: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- What the Air Force Tried in February 2021 (previous / next)
- The Air Force Court-Martial Year, 2021 (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.