Army Article 112a Cases in 2021

Trends › By Offense › Article 112a › Army, 2021

Based on 63 cases · 2021 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Few Drug Cases Were Contested

Of the 63 accused, 55 pleaded guilty and 8 pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to some or all charges. The contested share of 13% was lower than the 36% for the Army as a whole in 2021.

Most guilty pleas had a plea agreement. Of the 55 guilty pleas, 49 are recorded with an agreement, and 6 have no entry. Army records state whether an agreement existed but not its terms, so any limit it placed on the sentence does not appear.

More Punitive Discharges Than the Army Overall

Among 58 convicted enlisted members, 46 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (79%). That is higher than the 70% across all Army cases in 2021. Of those 46, 6 were dishonorable discharges.

A punitive discharge is part of the court-martial sentence. The 2 convicted officers or warrant officers in this group were both dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A member with no punitive discharge may still face an administrative separation, which these records do not show.

Most Confinement Terms Were Short

Of 60 convictions, 54 included confinement. The median confinement was 4 months, shorter than the 6 months for all Army cases. Terms under 6 months were the most common, in 33 convictions (55%), compared with 37% Army-wide.

Long sentences were less common. Of 60 convictions, 11 (18%) included more than one year, compared with 26% across the Army. Terms of 5 years or more were part of 3 convictions. No confinement was part of 6 convictions (10%), lower than the Army rate of 19%.

Sentences here are as adjudged at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.

General and Special Courts-Martial

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and can adjudge a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge. There were 31 general and 32 special courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 49%, compared with 73% for the Army.

The median confinement was 9 months at general courts-martial and 3 months at special courts-martial. The contested share was 16% at general courts-martial and 9% at special courts-martial.

Junior Enlisted Made Up Most of the Accused

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) accounted for 81% of the accused, NCOs for 16%, and officers for 3%. Across all Army cases in 2021, junior enlisted members were 58%. The accused in drug cases were more junior in rank.

A special court-martial can adjudge a bad-conduct discharge. Of the 46 punitive discharges in this group, only 6 were dishonorable discharges. The others were bad-conduct discharges.

Charged Alone or With Other Misconduct

Article 112a was the only charge in 18 of 63 cases. The other cases also charged other articles: Article 92 (orders violation) in 17, Article 107 (false official statement) in 14, Article 128 (assault) in 13, Article 90 (disobeying an officer) in 11, and Article 134 (general article) in 10.

An adjudged sentence covers every finding in the case. In a drug case that also includes an assault or disobedience conviction, the sentence covers those convictions too.

Who Decided Guilt

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone decided 59 cases. Members decided 6% of cases with the forum listed, all 4 of them enlisted panels. Most guilty pleas are decided by a military judge alone, so this split mostly follows the low contested share.

Bases With the Most Cases

Joint Base Lewis-McChord tried 9 of these cases, Fort Bliss 7, Fort Hood 6, Fort Huachuca 5, and Fort Bragg 4. Together they accounted for 49% of the 63. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so these counts alone do not mean any base has a particular problem.

The First Year of Fuller Army Records

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. That leaves no earlier year here for comparison.

The records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not give offense dates, the evidence, or plea terms. Drug use handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation does not appear in them.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 112a on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Drug Use: Federal Sentences vs. Army Courts-Martial · Drug Distribution: Federal Sentences vs. Army Courts-Martial

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.