Army Article 115 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025

Trends › By Offense › Article 115 › Army

Based on 103 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Every Case Included Another Charge

None of the 103 cases charged Article 115 by itself. Every case included at least 1 other article. The most common were Article 128 (assault) in 59 cases, Article 128b (domestic violence) in 36, Article 92 (orders violation) in 23, Article 134 (the general article) in 22, and Article 120 (sexual assault) in 20.

This affects every figure that follows. A sentence covers all the charges in a case. The numbers describe whole cases that included Article 115, not the threat charge alone.

A High Contested Share

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 102 records that list a plea, 46 were contested and 56 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 45%, compared with 30% across the Army. Of the 56 guilty pleas, 50 are recorded with a plea agreement and 6 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not its terms.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 27% of cases with the forum listed (26 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel), and a judge alone heard 74. Among contested cases, members heard 27 of 44 (61%).

More Partial Acquittals Than Full Acquittals

Of 46 contested cases that reached a verdict, 11 ended in a full acquittal (24%), lower than the 38% across the Army. Another 31 (67%) ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common.

Of contested cases decided by members, 26% ended in a full acquittal (7 of 27). Of those decided by a judge alone, 12% did (2 of 17). Counts this small can change with a single case. The records do not show why the results were different.

More Terms of 6 Months to 1 Year

Of 103 cases, 92 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 84 of those sentences included confinement (91%). The median was 7 months, compared with the 6 months Army median. A quarter were 1.3 years or longer.

Fewer convictions included no confinement: 9%, compared with 17% elsewhere. More were in the band of 6 months to 1 year: 26%, compared with 16%. Terms longer than one year were about as common as Army-wide: 25 of 92 convictions (27%), compared with 28%. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Most Were General Courts-Martial

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. General courts-martial made up 75% of the 102 cases with a court level listed (76 of 102). At those trials, 96% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 10 months. At the 26 special courts-martial, 78% did, and the median was 4 months.

Discharges and the Accused

Of 85 convicted enlisted members, 58 received a punitive discharge (48 bad-conduct and 10 dishonorable). That is a smaller share than the 73% in the rest of the Army. Of 7 convicted officers or warrant officers, 3 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

By rank, the accused were 55 junior enlisted members, 40 NCOs, and 8 officers. That is similar to the Army overall.

Fewer Cases Than in 2021

The yearly count was 2021: 31, 2022: 27, 2023: 16, 2024: 20, and 2025: 9. Altogether these were 4% of the 2,422 Army courts-martial in those years.

As a share of Army convictions with offenses listed, convictions including Article 115 went from 5% in 2021 to 4% in 2022 and 2% in 2023, then 3% in 2024 and 2% in 2025. The yearly count of such convictions was highest in 2021, at 22. Shares make years with different total numbers of cases comparable.

Law Changes and Locations

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. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. Judges sentence within new parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. These rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. Trials from 2024 on include old-rule and new-rule cases.

Fort Bragg (17), Joint Base Lewis-McChord (11), Fort Bliss (9), Fort Hood (8), and Vilseck (Europe) (6) had the most cases. Together they had 50% of the 103. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

Beyond the Courtroom

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and threats handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation do not appear.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 115 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.