September 2016 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 33 Cases
The Air Force tried 33 courts-martial in September 2016, and 27 of 28 convictions included confinement. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 57% of cases with charges listed, compared with 46% for the Air Force in all of 2016.
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Trends › By Year › September 2016
Short answer: The Air Force tried 33 courts-martial in September 2016, and 27 of 28 convictions included confinement. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 57% of cases with charges listed, compared with 46% for the Air Force in all of 2016. Of convicted enlisted members, 63% received a punitive discharge, compared with 54%.
Confinement in 27 of 28 Convictions
Of 28 convictions, 27 included confinement (96%). Only 4% of convictions included no confinement, compared with 15% for the Air Force over the full year.
The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the service-wide median. A quarter of the terms were 1.2 years or more. Most terms were short: 54% of convictions included terms under 6 months, compared with 44% for the year.
These are adjudged sentences, imposed at trial for all charges in the case. Plea-agreement caps, clemency, and appeals can reduce them later.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 1 | 4% | 15% |
| Under 6 months | 15 | 54% | 44% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 5 | 18% | 20% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 7 | 25% | 13% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 7% |
Terms of More Than One Year
Terms of more than one year were more common than across the service: 7 of 28 convictions (25%), compared with 20%. All of them were more than 1 year and under 5 years. That range was 25% of convictions here, compared with 13% for the year. No conviction in the month included 5 years or more.
Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement. At the 17 general courts-martial, 92% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 1.2 years. At the 16 special courts-martial, every conviction included confinement, and the median was 3 months.
Drug and Child Sexual Abuse Charges
Charge lists exist for 28 of the 33 cases, and each article is counted once per case. Article 112a, wrongful use or possession of controlled substances, appeared in 16 of them (57%). Article 120b, rape and sexual assault of a child, appeared in 18%, compared with 11% for the year.
Article 134, the general article, appeared in 11%, lower than the 27% for the year. Article 111, which the records label drunken or reckless driving, appeared in 11%, compared with 4%. Article 121 (larceny), Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation), and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 3 cases.
Air Force records rarely list charges for cases that ended in a full acquittal, so these shares come mostly from cases that ended in a conviction.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2016 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 16 | 57% | 46% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 5 | 18% | 11% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 3 | 11% | 12% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 3 | 11% | 16% |
| Art. 111 Drunken or reckless driving | 3 | 11% | 4% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 3 | 11% | 11% |
| Art. 134 General article | 3 | 11% | 27% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 7% | 10% |
Punitive Discharges
Among 27 convicted enlisted members, 17 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (63%), more often than the 54% across the Air Force. Of the 17, 5 were dishonorable discharges. Only a general court-martial can impose a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial can adjudge a bad-conduct discharge.
The month's 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which court-martial records do not show.
Acquittals Across All Cases
A full acquittal means not guilty of all charges. Full acquittals were 5 of the 33 cases (15%). The rate for the Air Force across 2016 was 18%.
Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea. The rate here is therefore measured against all cases, not only contested cases. A contested share cannot be computed for the month.
Judges, Panels, and Court Levels
A military judge alone decided 20 cases. Members decided the other 13 (39%): 4 enlisted panels and 9 officer panels. For the year, members decided 45%. The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel. Guilty pleas are rarely recorded in this period, so the records cannot show how many of the 20 judge-alone cases were pleas.
General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 17 of the 33 cases (52%). The rest were special courts-martial. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge.
Who Was Tried and Where
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 67% of the accused, NCOs 30%, and officers 3%. The junior enlisted share was close to the 65% for the Air Force in 2016.
Peterson SFB, Colorado, tried 4 cases, and Ramstein AB, Germany, tried 3. Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, and JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, tried 2 each. These five installations accounted for 39% of the month's cases. Larger bases try more cases of every kind.
What These Records Do Not Cover
These trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. Its changes to panels, plea agreements, and special courts-martial do not apply to them.
The records show trial dates, charges, findings, and sentences. They do not include the evidence, plea terms, or any conduct handled through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action. Air Force records also rarely list the 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 September 2016 (33 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)
- What the Air Force Tried in August 2016 (previous / next)
- October 2016 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 33 Cases (previous / next)
- The Air Force Court-Martial Year, 2016 (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.