When Article 107 and Article 92 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?

Trends › By Offense › Article 107 › With Article 92

Based on 143 cases · 2013–2026 · Army, Navy, and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Fewer Full Acquittals, More Partial Acquittals

Of 40 contested cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal: not guilty of every charge. The full-acquittal rate was 8%. Across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 107, it was 15%.

Partial acquittals were more common. In 19 contested cases, the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. In these records, a partial acquittal was a more common result than a full acquittal for an accused charged with both articles.

How Often Were These Cases Contested?

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either by a full not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. Here, 61 accused pleaded guilty and 40 contested at least one charge. The plea is listed in 101 of the 143 records.

The contested share was 40%, compared with 34% in all Article 107 cases from the same services. Cases with both articles went to trial on the merits more often than the broader group.

A More Senior Group of Accused

NCOs (E-5 to E-9) were the largest group: 72 of the accused. There were 53 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 10 officers or warrant officers. Across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 107, 49% of the accused were junior enlisted. This pairing had a more senior mix.

Special courts-martial were more common than in the comparison group. There were 53 general and 90 special courts-martial, a general share of 37%, compared with 43%. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Confinement After a Conviction

Of 137 convictions, 74% included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6 months in all Article 107 cases. A quarter of terms were 1 year or longer. These figures are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case, not only the articles named here.

Terms longer than one year were about as common as in the comparison group: 20 of 137 convictions (15%), compared with 18%. The table below sorts every conviction by length of confinement.

Sentences at General and Special Courts-Martial

Sentences differed by court level. At the 53 general courts-martial, 70% of convictions included confinement, and the median confinement was 1.1 years. At the 90 special courts-martial, 77% included confinement, and the median was 3 months.

Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement. The special courts-martial imposed confinement slightly more often, but for shorter terms.

Discharges and Dismissals

Of 122 convicted enlisted members, 70 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (57%). That rate was about the same as the 60% in all Article 107 cases from these services. Only 9 of those discharges were dishonorable.

For officers, the equivalent punishment is dismissal. Of 10 convicted officers or warrant officers, 4 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These records do not track administrative separation.

Other Articles in the Same Cases

Several other articles were charged often in these cases. Article 121 (larceny) was charged in 32 cases, Article 134 (general article) in 30, Article 128 (assault) in 27, and Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) in 25.

The sentence covers the whole case, so these other charges are part of every sentence figure above. The records do not show how much of a sentence was for each article.

Years and Installations

The 143 cases run from January 2013 to September 2026. The highest yearly count was 24, in 2021. There were 4 cases in each of 2014 and 2016. The 2026 count covers only part of the year.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had the most cases, 15. Next were Norfolk, Virginia (12), Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay (10), San Diego, California (9), and Quantico, Virginia (8). These 5 installations account for 38% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every type.

Law Changes and What the Records Do Not Show

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It added written plea agreements and judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months. Since December 28, 2023, new rules on prosecution decisions and sentencing apply, but they depend on the offense date. The records give only trial dates. They cannot sort cases by which rules applied or show whether either change affected results.

These records cover only cases that reached a courtroom. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases closed without action are not included. The records also do not describe the evidence or the terms of any plea agreement.

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.

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.