July 2020 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 29 Cases
Of 29 Air Force courts-martial in July 2020, 19 ended in guilty pleas and 10 were contested. Of those 10 contested cases, 7 ended in a full acquittal, a 70% rate compared with 58% for the Air Force across 2020. Members heard all 10 contested cases.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Short answer: Of 29 Air Force courts-martial in July 2020, 19 ended in guilty pleas and 10 were contested. Of those 10 contested cases, 7 ended in a full acquittal, a 70% rate compared with 58% for the Air Force across 2020. Members heard all 10 contested cases.
Most Accused Pleaded Guilty
All 29 cases have a plea on record. There were 19 guilty pleas and 10 contested cases, in which the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 34%, lower than the 48% across the Air Force for all of 2020.
A military judge alone decided 19 cases. Members decided the rest: 7 with enlisted panels and 3 with officer panels. Members heard 34% of cases overall, about the same as the 35% for the year.
Most Contested Cases Ended in a Full Acquittal
Of 10 contested cases that reached a verdict, 7 ended in a finding of not guilty on every charge. That 70% rate is higher than the 58% for the Air Force in 2020.
Members heard all 10 contested cases (100%). The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel. Air Force results report one verdict per case, so a partial acquittal, with conviction on some charges and not others, appears only when an appeals opinion describes it. None appear for this month.
Sentences After Conviction
Confinement was part of 91% of the 22 convictions. The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the 4-month median for the Air Force in 2020. A quarter of the terms were 1 year or longer.
Terms under 6 months came in 12 convictions (55%), and terms from 6 months to 1 year in 4 (18%). Terms longer than one year came in 4 of 22 convictions (18%), compared with 20% for the year. Of those, 2 were 5 years or more (9%, compared with 5%). Only 2 convictions included no confinement.
These are adjudged sentences for every charge of conviction, recorded before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 2 | 9% | 7% |
| Under 6 months | 12 | 55% | 60% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 18% | 13% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 2 | 9% | 15% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 9% | 5% |
General and Special Courts-Martial
There were 15 general and 14 special courts-martial. The general share was 52%, about the same as the 51% for the Air Force in 2020. At general courts-martial, 92% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 8 months. At special courts-martial, 90% did, with a median of 2 months.
A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. Since 2019, a judge-alone special court-martial is capped at six months with no punitive discharge.
Punitive Discharges
Of 21 convicted enlisted members, 11 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (52%), about the same as the 50% for the year. Of those 11, 4 were dishonorable. The month's 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These records do not include administrative separations.
Charges, Including a Murder Case
Charges are listed for 22 of the 29 cases, and each article is counted once per case. Article 112a, wrongful use or possession of controlled substances, appeared in 55%, compared with 51% for the year. Article 134, the general article, appeared in 27%, compared with 22%.
Article 128 (assault) appeared in 18%, and Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) in 14%. Both were about the same as the yearly shares. Article 128b (domestic violence), Article 90 (willfully disobeying a superior officer), Article 104a (fraudulent enlistment), and Article 118 (murder) each appeared in 1 case.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 12 | 55% | 51% |
| Art. 134 General article | 6 | 27% | 22% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 4 | 18% | 17% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 3 | 14% | 16% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 1 | 5% | 5% |
| Art. 90 Willfully disobeying superior officer | 1 | 5% | 2% |
| Art. 104a Fraudulent enlistment | 1 | 5% | 1% |
| Art. 118 Murder | 1 | 5% | 1% |
Compared With July 2019
July 2019 had 26 cases, and July 2020 had 29. The median confinement was 4 months in both months. Convictions with confinement went from 79% to 91%. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 58% to 52%, and the general court-martial share went from 46% to 52%. The earlier month has no contested share on record.
In monthly groups this size, a few cases can change each figure. These comparisons show direction, and the records cannot show what caused them.
| July 2019 | July 2020 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 26 | 29 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | — | 34% |
| Convictions with confinement | 79% | 91% |
| Median confinement | 4 months | 4 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 58% | 52% |
| General courts-martial | 46% | 52% |
Rank, Bases, and Limits of the Records
The accused were 20 junior enlisted members, 7 NCOs, and 2 officers. That group was more junior than the Air Force overall in 2020. Eglin AFB, Florida, FE Warren AFB, Wyoming, and Dyess AFB, Texas, tried 2 cases each. Goodfellow AFB, Texas, and Los Angeles Garrison, California, tried 1 each. Together they account for 28% of the month's cases.
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, 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 July 2020 (29 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, June 2020: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2020: The Month in Review (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
- 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.