When Article 120 and Article 129 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?

Trends › By Offense › Article 120 › With Article 129

Based on 25 cases · 2021–2026 · Army, Navy, and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Full Acquittals Were Uncommon

A contested case is one where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. 10 cases in this group were contested and reached a verdict. 1 of them ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge. That rate, 10%, is lower than the 49% full-acquittal rate across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120.

7 of the 10 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal. In a partial acquittal, the accused is found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another.

More Guilty Pleas Than in Article 120 Cases Overall

The plea is recorded for 23 of the 25 cases. 13 accused pleaded guilty, and 10 contested at least one charge. The contested share was 43%. Across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120, 69% were contested, so a guilty plea was more common in this group.

Confinement in Every Sentence

23 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and all 23 sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 1 year. Across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120, the median was 2 years, so the typical sentence here was shorter. A quarter of the sentences in this group were 3.2 years or longer.

The sentence figures are adjudged sentences. That means the sentence announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case, not only the Article 120 and Article 129 charges.

How Long Were the Terms?

10 of the 23 convictions carried 6 months to 1 year of confinement (43%), compared with 15% across Article 120 cases. 2 convictions (9%) carried under 6 months, compared with 15%. No conviction in this group was without confinement, while 13% of Article 120 convictions overall had none.

Terms longer than one year were less common here. 11 of the 23 convictions (48%) carried more than one year, compared with 57% across Article 120 cases. 6 convictions (26%) fell between 1 year and 5 years, compared with 35%. Terms of 5 years or more were 22% in both groups. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement.

Special Courts-Martial Were More Common

19 of the 25 cases were general courts-martial and 6 were special courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 76%, compared with 90% across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120.

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge or dismissal. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge.

Punitive Discharges for Most Convicted Members

17 of the 19 convicted enlisted members received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (89%). 7 of those were dishonorable discharges. Across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120, the share was 82%.

2 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in this group, and both were dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Rank and Other Charges

Among the accused with rank recorded, 17 were junior enlisted, 3 were NCOs, and 2 were officers. This group was more junior than all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120.

No case charged Article 120 alone. Besides Article 129, which appears in all 25 by definition, the most common other charge was Article 128, assault, in 9 cases. Article 134, the general article, Article 131b, obstruction, and Article 80, attempt, appeared in 2 cases each.

Years and Locations

The cases were tried from March 2021 to July 2026. There were 3 in 2021, 7 in 2022, 6 in 2023, 5 in 2024, 3 in 2025, and 1 in 2026, which is a partial year.

Camp Pendleton, California had 3 cases. San Diego, California, Norfolk, Virginia, Fort Sill, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 2 each. These five locations account for 44% of the 25 cases. Larger installations try more cases of all kinds, so a higher count does not by itself say anything about one base.

Limits of These Records

Article 120 is a covered offense. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. The records give trial dates but not offense dates, so trials from 2024 on cannot be sorted into old-rule and new-rule cases.

The records cover only cases that reached a court-martial. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, and cases with no action are not counted, and the records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 120 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 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.