When Article 107 and Article 121 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?

Trends › By Offense › Article 107 › With Article 121

Based on 155 cases · 2013–2026 · Army, Navy, and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most of the Accused Were NCOs

NCOs made up 58% of the accused in this pairing. Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 36%, and officers 6%. In all Article 107 cases, junior enlisted members were 49% of the accused.

Of 9 convicted officers or warrant officers, 5 were dismissed. For an officer, dismissal takes the place of a punitive discharge.

Few Full Acquittals

In a contested case, the accused entered a not-guilty or mixed plea, so at least one charge went to trial. Of the 126 records listing a plea, 95 were guilty pleas and 31 were contested. The contested share was 25%. For Article 107 cases in general, it was 34%. The records do not explain why any accused pleaded guilty or went to trial.

Only 2 of the 31 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge. That rate, 6%, was much lower than the 15% for Article 107 cases generally. Another 13 cases had a partial acquittal: the accused was found not guilty of some charge or specification and guilty of another.

Mostly Bad-Conduct Discharges

Of 138 convicted enlisted members, 87 received a punitive discharge (63%). That rate was slightly higher than the 60% for Article 107 cases as a whole. Of the 87, only 10 were dishonorable discharges. The rest were bad-conduct discharges.

Both court levels can adjudge a bad-conduct discharge. A dishonorable discharge requires a general court-martial. A sentence with no punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Sentence Lengths

Confinement was part of 119 of the 150 convictions. The median was 6 months, the same as for Article 107 cases overall. A quarter of terms were 10 months or longer. The figures are sentences adjudged at trial. A plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal can lower them later, and a single sentence covers all charges in the case.

Short terms were the most common. Under 6 months: 39% of convictions, compared with 38% in the Article 107 group. From 6 months to 1 year: 29%, compared with 22%. Over one year: 16 of 150 convictions (11%), compared with 18%. Of all convictions, 4% carried 5 years or more, and 21% carried no confinement.

Special Courts-Martial Heard Most Cases

There were 97 special courts-martial and 57 general courts-martial. The court level is not listed for 1 case. General courts-martial were 37% of these cases, compared with 43% of Article 107 cases. Confinement at a special court-martial cannot go past one year, and a dishonorable discharge is not available there.

At general courts-martial, 40% of cases were contested and the median confinement was 10 months. At special courts-martial, 15% were contested and the median was 5 months.

Other Charges in These Cases

Besides larceny, the most frequent other charges were Article 92 (orders violation) in 32 of the 155 cases, Article 81 (conspiracy) in 18, Article 112a (drug) in 14, and Article 134 (general article) in 13. A case with several of these counts under each one.

Years and Installations

The records run from January 2013 to September 2026. The year with the most cases was 2021, with 28. Next were 2013 and 2018, with 15 each. The 2026 count of 9 covers part of a year.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 19 of these cases, more than any other installation. San Diego, California tried 14, Bremerton, Washington 12, and Okinawa, Japan and Norfolk, Virginia 10 each. These five installations account for 42% of the total. Installations with more personnel try more cases of every type.

Law Changes and Missing Information

Written plea agreements and judge-alone special courts-martial came with the Military Justice Act of 2016, which applied from January 1, 2019. Under a later change, a military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023.

Which rules apply depends on the offense date. The records list only trial dates, so they cannot show which rules governed each case or whether either change affected these figures. They also do not include the evidence, plea terms, nonjudicial punishment, or administrative separations.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 107 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Theft and Fraud by Dollar Loss: Federal Sentences vs. Article 121 Courts-Martial

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.