Army Conspiracy Cases Against Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4): Outcomes and Sentences

Trends › By Offense › Article 81 › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 55 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Other Charges in the Same Cases

A conspiracy charge describes an agreement to commit some other offense. In 50 of the 55 cases, at least 1 other article was charged.

The most common were Article 112a (drug) in 22 cases, Article 121 (larceny) in 13, Article 92 (orders violation) in 12, Article 128 (assault) in 11, and Article 80 (attempt) in 8.

Each sentence covers every charge in the case. The results below therefore describe whole cases, not conspiracy alone.

Most Cases Were Guilty Pleas

Of the 54 records that list a plea, 45 were guilty pleas and 9 were contested. A contested case is one where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share of 17% is about the same as the 18% across all Army Article 81 cases.

Plea agreements are recorded for 43 of the 45 guilty pleas, and 2 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed but not its terms.

Confinement After Conviction

53 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Of those, 44 sentences included confinement (83%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6 months for all Army Article 81 cases. A quarter of the sentences were 1.3 years or longer.

Sentences longer than one year were 12 of 53 convictions (23%), compared with 19% for the offense overall. Sentences under 6 months were 34% of convictions here, compared with 42%.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. With 53 convictions in all, a few long sentences can change the shares for the longest sentences by several points.

General and Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial were 61% of the 54 cases with a court level listed (33 of 54). At general courts-martial, 87% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 1 year. At the 21 special courts-martial, 76% did, and the median was 4 months. The court level is not listed for 1 case.

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge and confinement of more than one year. A special court-martial can impose no more than one year of confinement. It can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge.

Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, with confinement limited to six months and no punitive discharge.

Punitive Discharges

Of 53 convicted enlisted members, 44 received a punitive discharge: 35 bad-conduct discharges and 9 dishonorable discharges. Across all Army Article 81 cases, the share was 82%.

A sentence without a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation. These records do not cover administrative separations.

Who Decided Guilt?

Members decided 11% of cases with the forum listed: 5 by enlisted panels and 1 by an officer panel. A judge alone decided the other 49.

The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel of members. Most cases here were guilty pleas, so panels were uncommon. This page does not report the results of the 9 contested cases, so it gives no acquittal rate.

Years and Installations

The 55 cases were tried from March 2021 to July 2025. There were 14 in 2021, 21 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 8 in 2024, and 6 in 2025. The yearly number was lower after 2022. The records do not explain the decrease.

Fort Bliss had 12 of the cases, Joint Base Lewis-McChord 8, Fort Carson and Fort Leonard Wood 6 each, and Fort Polk 3. Together these five account for 64% of the 55. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count alone does not show a problem with conspiracy at any one base.

What the Records Do Not Show

Since December 28, 2023, new sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records list trial dates, not offense dates, so recent trials include cases under both systems.

The records do not include the evidence or the plea terms. They do not link related cases, and they do not include cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Army records are sparse before 2021.

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.