When Article 113 and Article 92 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?
The Army, Navy, and Marine Corps tried 21 courts-martial from 2021–2026 that charged both Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019; drunken or reckless driving since) and Article 92 (orders violation).
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Short answer: The Army, Navy, and Marine Corps tried 21 courts-martial from 2021–2026 that charged both Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019; drunken or reckless driving since) and Article 92 (orders violation). 48% of these cases were contested, compared with 22% in all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113. None of the 10 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (0 of 10), compared with 9% for Article 113 cases overall.
Contested Cases and Their Verdicts
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either through a not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. Here, 10 cases were contested and 11 ended in a guilty plea. The contested share of 48% is higher than the 22% in all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113.
No contested case in this group ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge. In the comparison group, 9% of contested cases did.
Of the 10 contested cases, 5 ended in a partial acquittal (50%). A partial acquittal means the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. All 21 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge.
Confinement Compared With Other Article 113 Cases
Of the 21 convictions, 17 included confinement (81%). The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the 4 months median for all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113. Among the sentences that included confinement, a quarter were 8 months or longer.
Terms of more than one year appeared in 4 of 21 convictions (19%), compared with 14% in the comparison group. No conviction here carried 5 years or more. The most common band was under 6 months, with 10 convictions (48%), the same share as in the comparison group.
These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 4 | 19% | 22% |
| Under 6 months | 10 | 48% | 48% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 3 | 14% | 15% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 4 | 19% | 13% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 2% |
Bad-Conduct and Dishonorable Discharges
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for enlisted members. Here, 45% of enlisted convictions ended with one: 8 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. The share in all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113 was also 45%.
A sentence with no punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which these records do not track.
Other Articles Charged in These Cases
None of the 21 cases charged Article 113 by itself. In all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113, 53 of 171 charged it alone.
After Article 92, which appears in every case here by definition, the most frequent charges were Article 128 (assault) in 5 cases, Article 134 (general article) in 4, Article 109 (property damage) in 3, and Article 128b (domestic violence) in 3.
Rank and Type of Court
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 65% of the accused and NCOs made up 35%. No officers appear. In all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 113, junior enlisted members were 56% of the accused.
The records list 8 general courts-martial and 12 special courts-martial, with 1 case not listed. The general court-martial share was 40%, compared with 34% in the comparison group. A general court-martial can adjudge any lawful sentence. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge, and only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year.
Installations With the Most Cases
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 3 of these cases. Bremerton, Washington, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and Fort Riley had 2 each, and Kaiserslautern (Europe) had 1. Together, these five installations account for 48% of the 21 cases.
A larger installation tries more cases of all kinds, so a higher count is not evidence that an installation has more of this conduct.
Trial Dates
The trials ran from February 2021 through June 2026. By year: 2021: 2, 2022: 4, 2023: 4, 2024: 4, 2025: 4, and 2026: 3. The 2026 number covers only part of the year.
Law Changes and What the Records Leave Out
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules turn on the offense date, which these records do not give. Trials from 2024 on therefore mix cases under the old and new rules.
The records show only what reached a courtroom. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, and cases with no action are not included, and the records do not describe the evidence or any plea terms.
For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 113 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Army, Navy, and Marine Corps courts-martial that charged both Article 113 and Article 92 (21 cases). Air Force cases are left out because Air Force records rarely list the charges in acquittals.
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
- Article 113 (Misbehavior of a Sentinel Before 2019, Drunken or Reckless Driving Since): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Article 92 (Failure to Obey Order or Regulation): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- When Article 113 and Article 128 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?
- When Article 113 and Article 134 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?
- Articles 113 and 90 in the Same Case: What the Records Show
- Is Army Drunken Or Reckless Driving Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 113, 2021–2025
- Air Force Article 113 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025
- Article 113 explained on the law firm's website
- 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.