How Has Article 81 Changed in Army Courts-Martial Since 2021?

Trends › By Offense › Article 81 › Army

Based on 84 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Conspiracy Cases Were Guilty Pleas

Of 83 records that list a plea, 68 were guilty pleas and 15 were not-guilty or mixed pleas. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share here was 18%, compared with 30% in the Army as a whole.

Army records show whether a guilty plea came with a plea agreement, but not what the agreement said. Of the 68 guilty pleas, 64 are recorded with an agreement and 4 have no entry.

Cases by Year

The records show 84 cases tried between February 2021 and July 2025. There were 21 in 2021, 33 in 2022, 7 in 2023, 14 in 2024, and 9 in 2025. That is 3% of all Army courts-martial in those years (2,422 cases).

Convictions that included Article 81 peaked at 27 in 2022. That year, Article 81 was part of 6% of all Army convictions with offenses listed. The share was 1% in 2023, 3% in 2024, and 2% in 2025. Shares make years with different total caseloads comparable. Army data begins in December 2020, when public trial records under Article 140a started.

Conspiracy to Do What?

A conspiracy charge requires an underlying offense, and the records show which offenses were charged with it. Article 81 was the only charge in 8 of 84 cases. Drug offenses under Article 112a appeared in 28 cases, larceny under Article 121 in 23, orders violations under Article 92 in 20, obstruction under Article 131b in 14, and false official statements under Article 107 in 14.

Each sentence covers every charge in the case. The outcomes below describe the full set of offenses, not the conspiracy charge alone.

Discharges Higher Than the Army Rate

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. One was adjudged in 82% of enlisted convictions here: 49 bad-conduct and 13 dishonorable. Across all Army cases, the share was 73%.

The equivalent sentence for an officer is dismissal. Of 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 1 was dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not track.

Confinement About the Same as the Army Median

Of 79 convictions, 67 included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for the rest of the Army. A quarter of those sentences were 1 year or longer, and 1 was a life sentence. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Sentences longer than one year were less common than Army-wide: 15 of 79 convictions (19%), compared with 28%.

Court Level and Forum

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. General courts-martial heard 67% of the 83 cases with a court level listed (56 of 83), and the median confinement there was 9 months. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year. The 27 special courts-martial had a median confinement of 4 months. The contested share was 22% at the general level and 11% at the special level.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 12% of cases with the forum listed: 8 enlisted panels and 2 officer panels. A judge alone decided 74 cases. Among contested cases, members heard 9 of 15 (60%).

How Contested Cases Ended

Of the 15 decided contested cases, 33% ended in a full acquittal. That is lower than the 38% in all Army cases in those years. Another 8 were partial acquittals: 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 in Army data.

Rank and Location

By rank, the accused were 55 junior enlisted members, 26 NCOs, and 3 officers. This group was more junior than the Army as a whole.

Fort Bliss tried the most of these cases (15). Joint Base Lewis-McChord tried 9, Fort Bragg 8, Fort Hood 7, and Fort Stewart 6. Those five installations had 54% of the total. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count alone does not mean a base has a problem with this offense.

What the Records Do Not Show

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. Both rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. The records also do not show the evidence, the terms of plea agreements, or conduct handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

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.