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# When Army Accused Plead Guilty to Article 93a
- URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-93a-plea-2021-2025/
- Published: 2026-10-28T06:50:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-30T08:05:26.000Z
- Description: Every accused in the 28 Army guilty pleas from 2021–2025 that included Article 93a (prohibited activities with a recruit or trainee) was an NCO or officer; none were junior enlisted. The median confinement was 50 days, compared with 5 months in all Army guilty pleas.
- Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart
- Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 93a, Army

[Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 93a](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-93a-courts-martial/) › When Army Accused Plead Guilty to Articl

**Short answer:** Every accused in the 28 Army guilty pleas from 2021–2025 that included Article 93a (prohibited activities with a recruit or trainee) was an NCO or officer; none were junior enlisted. The median confinement was 50 days, compared with 5 months in all Army guilty pleas. 33% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 75%.

Based on 28 cases · 2021–2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

## An Offense Charged Against Leaders

The accused were 27 NCOs (E-5 to E-9) and 1 officer or warrant officer, with 0 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4). Across all Army guilty pleas in those years, junior enlisted members were 60% of the accused. This matters for the comparisons on this page. They compare a group made up entirely of NCOs and 1 officer with an Army-wide group that was mostly junior enlisted.

This page covers only guilty pleas in which the charges included Article 93a. The records hold 28 such cases from January 2021 through November 2025.

## No Sentence Was Longer Than One Year

All 28 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 23 of those sentences included confinement (82%). The median confinement was 50 days, compared with 5 months in all Army guilty pleas. A quarter of the sentences to confinement were 3 months or longer.

Sentences under 6 months made up 79% of convictions, compared with 44% in all Army guilty pleas. Only 1 conviction included 6 months to 1 year. 0 of 28 included more than one year, compared with 24%. 18% of convictions included no confinement, compared with 14%. All figures are sentences as adjudged at trial. Plea-agreement caps, clemency, and appeals come later and are not reflected.

| Adjudged confinement            | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Army guilty pleas in those years |
| ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------- |
| No confinement                  | 5           | 18%        | 14%                                         |
| Under 6 months                  | 22          | 79%        | 44%                                         |
| 6 months to 1 year              | 1           | 4%         | 18%                                         |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 0           | 0%         | 17%                                         |
| 5 years or more                 | 0           | 0%         | 6%                                          |

## Punitive Discharges Were Less Common

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge imposed as part of the court-martial sentence.

Of 27 convicted enlisted members, 9 received a punitive discharge (33%). All 9 were bad-conduct discharges, and 0 were dishonorable. The share in all Army guilty pleas was 75%. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed, the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.

These records do not cover administrative separations. A member sentenced without a punitive discharge may still be separated that way.

## Mostly Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial tried 8 of the 27 cases with a court level listed (30%), compared with 68% in all Army guilty pleas. The court level is not listed for 1 case. The rest went to special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence.

One form of special court-martial, allowed since 2019, has a military judge alone and caps confinement at six months with no punitive discharge. This page counts it together with other special courts-martial.

## Most Cases Were Tried at a Few Installations

Fort Knox tried 14 of the 28 cases. Fort Jackson and Fort Sill had 4 each, Fort Lee 2, and Fort Benning 1\. Together those 5 installations account for 89% of the cases. Bigger installations hold more trials of all types. A count of cases at one installation does not, by itself, show a problem there.

## Orders Violations Were the Most Common Other Charge

Of the 28 cases, 18 charged at least one other article. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 12, Article 134 (general article) in 8, Article 131b (obstruction) in 4, Article 107 (false official statement) in 3, and Article 90 (disobeying an officer) in 2\. Each sentence covers all charges in its case.

## Plea Agreements and the Forum

Of the 28 guilty pleas, 27 are recorded with a plea agreement, and 1 has no entry. Army records say whether there was an agreement, not what it said, so any limits it set on the sentence are not visible.

No case went to a panel of members. All 28 were decided by a military judge alone, which is usual for guilty pleas.

## Cases by Year, and Law Changes

The number of cases by year was 4 in 2021, 8 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 6 in 2024, and 7 in 2025\. Article 140a required the services to begin publishing trial records by December 2020\. Few Army records in this data are from before 2021.

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023\. Because the records list trial dates only, trials from 2024 on include cases under both the old and the new rules.

## What the Records Do Not Show

Cases closed through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action never reach these records. The evidence and the plea terms are also missing from them.

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: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 93a (prohibited activities with recruit or trainee) (28 cases), compared with all Army guilty pleas 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 93a (Prohibited Activities with Recruit or Trainee, Numbered Since 2019): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-93a-courts-martial/) (hub)
- [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub)
- [Is Army Article 93a Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 93a, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-93a-trend-2021-2025/)
- [How Much Confinement for an Article 93a Conviction in the Army?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-93a-sent-2021-2025/)
- [Guilty Pleas in Army Child Endangerment Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-119b-plea-2021-2025/)
- [Guilty Pleas in Army Communicating Threats Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-115-plea-2021-2025/)
- [Guilty Pleas in Army Conspiracy Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-81-plea-2021-2025/)
- [Guilty Pleas in Army Domestic Violence Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128b-plea-2021-2025/)
- [Guilty Pleas in Army Drug Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-112a-plea-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.