Is Army Endangerment Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 114, 2021–2025

Trends › By Offense › Article 114 › Army

Based on 26 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Few Contested Cases Ended in a Full Acquittal

Contested cases were common in this group. Of the 25 records with a plea listed, 13 show a guilty plea and 12 show a contested case, where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. That 48% contested share is higher than the Army's 30%.

Of 12 contested cases that reached a verdict, 2 ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty on every charge. That is a rate of 17%, compared with 38% Army-wide. Another 9 were partial acquittals, meaning not guilty of at least one charge but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, which makes partial acquittals easy to see.

About the Same Each Year

The 26 cases were tried from January 2021 to September 2025: 5 in 2021, 5 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 7 in 2024, and 6 in 2025. They are 1% of the 2,422 Army courts-martial in those years.

Convictions that included Article 114 stayed between 3 and 4 a year, and the offense's share of Army convictions with offenses listed was 1% in every year. In 2021–2022 it was part of 7 of 891 convictions (1%), and in 2024–2025 it was part of 8 of 816 (1%), about the same share.

Usually Charged With Other Offenses

Only 1 case charged endangerment by itself: 25 of the 26 listed at least one other article. Article 134 (the general article) appeared in 9. Article 128 (assault) and Article 128b (domestic violence) each appeared in 8. Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 115 (communicating threats) each appeared in 7.

A sentence covers all the charges in a case, so confinement and discharge numbers here include assault, domestic violence, threat, and other charges as well as the endangerment charge.

Confinement in Every Conviction

All 24 convictions included confinement. Across the rest of the Army, 17% of convictions included none. The median term was 6 months, the same as for the Army as a whole. A quarter of sentences were 9 months or longer.

Most terms were short. Terms under 6 months made up 54% of convictions, compared with 39% elsewhere in the Army. Terms of 6 months to 1 year made up 29%, compared with 16%. Terms longer than one year were less common: 4 of 24 (17%), compared with 28%. Of those, 2 were between 1 and 5 years, and 2 were 5 years or more.

All are adjudged sentences, imposed at trial and before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

More Officers Than Usual

This group was more senior than all Army cases. The accused included 12 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 9 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 5 officers or warrant officers. Army-wide, junior enlisted members were 55% of the accused.

Of the convicted, 4 were officers or warrant officers, and 3 of them were dismissed, the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. Among 20 convicted enlisted members, 13 received a punitive discharge: 11 bad-conduct and 2 dishonorable. The Army-wide share for enlisted members was 73%. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Court Level and Forum

General courts-martial, which can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, heard 73% of these cases (19 of 26). Special courts-martial, which are limited to one year of confinement, heard the rest.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A judge alone decided 20 of 25 cases with the forum listed (80%), and members heard 5: 4 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel. Among contested cases, members heard 5 of 11 (45%).

Installations

Fort Hood and Fort Bragg each tried 4 of these cases, and Fort Benning, Fort Bliss, and Fort Campbell each tried 2. Those five installations tried 54% of the 26 cases. Larger installations try more cases of all kinds, so the counts do not show a problem at any one installation.

What the Records Leave Out

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For offenses after December 27, 2023, judges sentence within new parameters. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so trials from 2024 on include cases under both sets of rules. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, after the services were required to start publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020.

Plea agreements are noted but not described: 12 of the 13 guilty pleas are recorded with one. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and the evidence behind each case are not in these records.

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.