> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How Much Confinement for an Article 117a Conviction in the Army? - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-117a-sent-2021-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-30T08:05:23.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:05:23.000Z - Description: The Army records hold 19 courts-martial from 2021 to 2025 that ended in a conviction under Article 117a (intimate image). 18 of the 19 accused pleaded guilty, so only 5% of the cases were contested, against 21% for all Army convictions in those years. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 117a, Army [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 117a](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-117a-courts-martial/) › How Much Confinement for an Article 117a **Short answer:** The Army records hold 19 courts-martial from 2021 to 2025 that ended in a conviction under Article 117a (intimate image). 18 of the 19 accused pleaded guilty, so only 5% of the cases were contested, against 21% for all Army convictions in those years. The median confinement was 4 months, shorter than the Army median of 6 months. Based on 19 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Guilty Pleas With Plea Agreements 1 accused entered a not-guilty or mixed plea, and 18 pleaded guilty. The contested share, 5%, was lower than the 21% across all Army convictions from 2021 to 2025. All 18 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement. Army records say whether an agreement existed, but not what it said, so the terms are unknown. A military judge alone decided all 19 cases. No enlisted or officer panels appear. The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel of members. ## Sentences to Confinement Confinement was part of 89% of the 19 sentences. The median term was 4 months, compared with 6 months for all Army convictions. A quarter of the terms were 1 year or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any cap in a plea agreement, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers all the charges in the case. ## Discharges 68% of the convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge: 11 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable discharges. That was slightly lower than the 73% for all Army convictions in those years. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. ## Other Articles in These Cases 15 of the 19 cases included at least one other article. Article 134 (general article) was the most common, in 7\. Article 115 (communicating threats) appeared in 5, Article 128 (assault) in 4, and Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 90 (disobeying an officer) in 3 each. ## Rank and Court Level The accused were 12 junior enlisted members and 7 NCOs. No officers appear. The group was more junior than all Army convictions in those years. 13 of the 19 cases were general courts-martial (68%), compared with 72% across Army convictions. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. ## Yearly Counts and Covered-Offense Rules The cases were tried from February 2021 to March 2025: 6 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 1 in 2025\. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, after the services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. Article 117a is a covered offense. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute it. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023\. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so trials from 2024 on cannot be sorted by which rules applied. ## What the Records Do Not Show The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. They do not include cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Army courts-martial tried 2021–2025: ending in a conviction under Article 117a (intimate image) (19 cases), compared with all Army convictions in those years. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Article 117a (Wrongful Broadcast of Intimate Visual Images): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-117a-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub) - [Fewer or More? Intimate Image Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-117a-trend-2021-2025/) - [Guilty Pleas in Army Intimate Image Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-117a-plea-2021-2025/) - [What Sentence Follows an Air Force Intimate Image Conviction?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-117a-sent-2016-2025/) (another service) - [What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Intimate Image Conviction?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-117a-sent-2017-2025/) (another service) - [Article 107 Sentences in the Army: Confinement and Discharges, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-107-sent-2021-2025/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.