What the Army Tried in April 2022
Few contested cases in the Army's 49 courts-martial of April 2022 ended in a full acquittal: 4 of 17 contested cases that reached a verdict (24%), compared with 38% for the Army across 2022. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 33% of cases, compared with 27% for the year.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Short answer: Few contested cases in the Army's 49 courts-martial of April 2022 ended in a full acquittal: 4 of 17 contested cases that reached a verdict (24%), compared with 38% for the Army across 2022. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 33% of cases, compared with 27% for the year. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for the year.
Few Full Acquittals
Of 17 contested cases that reached a verdict, 4 ended in a full acquittal. Another 10 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.
Members heard 9 of the 17 contested cases (53%). A military judge alone heard the rest. The accused usually chooses whether a judge or members decide guilt.
Pleas and Plea Agreements
A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. April 2022 had 17 contested cases and 32 guilty pleas. The contested share was 35%, about the same as the 36% for the Army that year.
Of the 32 guilty pleas, 23 are recorded with a plea agreement and 9 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed but not its terms.
Guilty pleas were more common for some charges than others. Cases charging Article 134, the general article, ended in a guilty plea 91% of the time (10 of 11). For Article 120, rape and sexual assault, the figure was 23% (3 of 13). The records do not explain those choices.
Results by Charge
All 11 cases charging Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, ended in a conviction on that article. The median confinement was 3 months. Article 134 cases ended in a conviction on that article in 9 of 11 (82%), and Article 128 cases in 13 of 16 (81%). Both had a median confinement of 5 months.
Article 120 had a lower conviction rate. Only 6 of 13 cases charging it (46%) ended in a conviction on that article. The median confinement for those convictions was 1.8 years. A single case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so the rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 16 | 13 (81%) | 5 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 13 | 6 (46%) | 1.8 years |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 11 | 11 (100%) | 3 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 9 (82%) | 5 months |
What Was Charged
All 49 cases list charges, and each article counts once per case. Article 128, assault, was the most common, at 33%. Article 120 appeared in 27%, compared with 26% for the year. Article 92 and Article 134 each appeared in 22%.
Article 128b (domestic violence) appeared in 14% of cases, compared with 13%. Article 115 (communicating threats) appeared in 8%, compared with 6%. Article 112a, the drug article, was less common than for the year: 8% compared with 13%. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) appeared in 6%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Army for all of 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 16 | 33% | 27% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 13 | 27% | 26% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 11 | 22% | 18% |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 22% | 21% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 7 | 14% | 13% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 8% | 13% |
| Art. 115 Communicating threats | 4 | 8% | 6% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 3 | 6% | 8% |
Confinement in April 2022
Of 45 convictions, 40 included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for the year. A quarter of sentences were 1.6 years or longer.
Sentences longer than one year were as common as across the Army: 12 of 45 convictions (27%), compared with 27%. Sentences under 6 months were more common: 49% of convictions, compared with 41%.
At general courts-martial (36 cases), 94% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 6 months. At special courts-martial (12 cases), 73% did, and the median was 4 months. The court level is missing for 1 case. All figures are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Army for all of 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 11% | 16% |
| Under 6 months | 22 | 49% | 41% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 6 | 13% | 16% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8 | 18% | 20% |
| 5 years or more | 4 | 9% | 7% |
Punitive Discharges
Of 42 convicted enlisted members, 32 received a punitive discharge: 24 bad-conduct and 8 dishonorable. The Army share for 2022 was 76%. Among 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 1 was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.
A dishonorable discharge requires a general court-martial. A special court-martial can impose only a bad-conduct discharge. A sentence without either does not rule out an administrative separation later.
Compared With April 2021
April 2021 had 67 cases, compared with 49 in April 2022. The contested share went from 48% to 35%. Full acquittals were 9 of 31 contested cases that reached a verdict in April 2021 and 4 of 17 in April 2022.
The median confinement was 6 months in both months. Convictions with confinement went from 79% to 89%. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 69% to 76%. The general court-martial share was 73% in both months. A few cases can change monthly figures, so these are not precise trends.
| April 2021 | April 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 67 | 49 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 48% | 35% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 9 of 31 | 4 of 17 |
| Convictions with confinement | 79% | 89% |
| Median confinement | 6 months | 6 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 69% | 76% |
| General courts-martial | 73% | 75% |
Rank, Installations, and What the Records Do Not Show
The accused were 30 junior enlisted members, 16 NCOs, and 3 officers or warrant officers. This group was more junior than the Army overall, where 57% were junior enlisted. A military judge alone decided 39 cases. Members decided 20% of cases, the same as the year: 9 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel.
Joint Base Lewis-McChord tried 8 cases, Fort Carson 4, and Fort Bliss, Fort Campbell, and Fort Hood 3 each, together 43% of the month's cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind. The records do not give offense dates or describe the evidence or plea terms. They do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Army courts-martial with a trial date in April 2022 (49 cases), compared with the whole year.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What the Army Tried in March 2022 (previous / next)
- May 2022 at Army Courts-Martial: 62 Cases (previous / next)
- The Army Court-Martial Year, 2022 (the whole year)
- April 2023 at Army Courts-Martial: 49 Cases
- April 2024 at Army Courts-Martial: 46 Cases
- Army Courts-Martial, August 2025: The Month in Review
- Army Courts-Martial, December 2024: The Month in Review
- Search every case in 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. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.