How Has Article 109 Changed in Army Courts-Martial Since 2021?

Trends › By Offense › Article 109 › Army

Based on 42 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Always Charged With Other Articles

None of the 42 cases charged Article 109 alone (0 of 42). The articles most often charged with it were Article 128b (domestic violence) in 23 cases and Article 128 (assault) in 21. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 10, Article 115 (communicating threats) in 9, and Article 134 (general article) in 7.

A sentence covers all the charges in a case. The confinement and discharge numbers below therefore include the assault or domestic violence counts as well as the property damage.

A Smaller Share of Army Convictions

There were 15 cases in 2021, 13 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 5 in 2024, and 3 in 2025. Altogether, the 42 cases were 2% of the 2,422 Army courts-martial in those years.

Counting convictions instead of cases, Article 109 was part of 12 Army convictions in 2021, the highest year, and 3 in each of 2024 and 2025. As a share of all Army convictions with offenses listed, it went from 3% in 2021 to 2% in 2022 and 1% in each year from 2023 through 2025. Across 2021–2022, Article 109 was part of 20 of 891 Army convictions (2%); across 2024–2025, it was part of 6 of 816 (1%), a smaller share. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.

Few Contested Cases Ended in a Full Acquittal

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of the 42 cases, 12 were contested (29%), close to the 30% across the Army, and 30 were guilty pleas. Of the guilty pleas, 27 are recorded with a plea agreement, and 3 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not what it said.

Of the 12 contested cases that reached a verdict, 2 ended in a full acquittal (17%), lower than the 38% in all Army cases in those years. The other 10 were partial acquittals (83%), meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals appear in the records.

Sentences at Each Court Level

Of the 42 cases, 40 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 35 of those sentences included confinement (88%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as in the rest of the Army. A quarter of terms were 1.3 years or longer.

A general court-martial can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. At the 27 general courts-martial, 92% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 11 months. A special court-martial is capped at one year. At the 14 special courts-martial, 79% did, and the median was 3 months.

Terms of more than one year were part of 11 of 40 convictions (28%), the same as the 28% Army-wide. Terms under 6 months were part of 42% of convictions, compared with 39% in the rest of the Army. Terms of 6 months to 1 year were part of 18%, compared with 16%. Terms of more than 1 year and under 5 years were part of 22%, compared with 20%. The court level is not listed for 1 case. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Discharges After Conviction

A punitive discharge, for an enlisted member, is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Here, 70% of enlisted convictions included one, compared with 73% across the Army. There were 23 bad-conduct discharges and 5 dishonorable discharges. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later.

Judges, Panels, and Ranks

A military judge alone decided 34 cases, and enlisted panels decided 7. No officer panel decided any. Members decided 17% of cases here and 18% Army-wide. Among contested cases, members decided 7 of 11 (64%). The accused usually chooses the forum.

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 62% of the accused, NCOs 38%, and officers 0%. Across the Army, 55% were junior enlisted. General courts-martial heard 66% of the 41 cases with a court level listed (27 of 41).

Where the Cases Were Tried

Joint Base Lewis-McChord had the most of these cases with 6, followed by Vilseck (Europe) with 5, Fort Lee and Fort Bragg with 4 each, and Fort Bliss with 3. Together they accounted for 52% of the 42 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count does not by itself mean a base has a problem.

Rule Changes and Record Gaps

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as domestic violence. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence under new parameters. The number of Article 109 cases went down both before and after these changes. The records cannot show whether the changes had any effect.

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms. They do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: 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.