How Much Confinement for an Article 81 Conviction in the Army?

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Based on 70 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Conspiracy Convictions Came Mostly From Guilty Pleas

This post covers Army cases that ended in a conviction where Article 81, conspiracy, was among the charges. Most of these cases were guilty pleas. Of the 69 records that list a plea, 63 were guilty pleas and 6 were contested. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge.

The contested share was 9%, compared with 21% across all Army convictions in the same years. Of the 63 guilty pleas, 60 are recorded with a plea agreement and 3 have no entry. Army records say whether an agreement existed, not what it said.

Discharges Were More Common Than Army-Wide

Of 69 convicted enlisted members, 57 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (83%). Across all Army convictions, the share was 73%. Of the 57 discharges, 13 were dishonorable.

The records show 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was dismissed. For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. For an officer, it is a dismissal. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Confinement Terms

All 70 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 62 of those sentences included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as across all Army convictions. A quarter of sentences were 1 year or longer, and 1 was a life sentence.

Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were more common here: 24% of convictions, compared with 16% Army-wide. Sentences longer than one year were less common: 14 of 70 (20%), compared with 28%. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.

What Was the Conspiracy About?

A conspiracy charge requires an agreement to commit another offense, so it is nearly always charged with other offenses. Article 81 was the only charge in 8 of the 70 cases.

The most common other charges were Article 112a (drug offenses) in 24 cases, Article 121 (larceny) in 20, Article 92 (orders violation) in 18, Article 131b (obstruction) in 11, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 11. The records do not say which offense was the object of the conspiracy in any case.

Court Level and Forum

The records show 46 general courts-martial and 23 special courts-martial. The level is not listed for 1 case. The general share was 67%, lower than the 72% across Army convictions.

The median confinement was 10 months at general courts-martial and 4 months at special courts-martial. The contested share was 11% at general courts-martial and 4% at special courts-martial.

Where the forum was listed, 7% of cases went to members. All 5 were enlisted panels. A military judge alone decided the other 65. The accused usually makes that choice, and most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas.

Who Was Convicted

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 67% of the accused. NCOs made up 31% and officers 1%. Across all Army convictions, junior enlisted members were 57%, so this group was more junior than the Army as a whole.

Year by Year and Base by Base

The cases were tried from February 2021 to July 2025. There were 18 in 2021, 27 in 2022, 4 in 2023, 12 in 2024, and 9 in 2025. The records do not link cases that may have come from the same alleged agreement among several accused.

Fort Bliss had the most of these convictions (13). Joint Base Lewis-McChord had 9, Fort Hood 7, Fort Bragg 6, and Fort Leonard Wood 6. Those five installations had 59% of the 70 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

Rule Changes in the Period

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault and domestic violence. For offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. 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.

What Is Not in the Records

Only cases that reached a courtroom are counted. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases closed without action are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms.

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.