When Article 120 and Article 81 Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?
23 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013–2026 charged both sexual assault under Article 120 and conspiracy under Article 81. The median confinement after conviction was 5 years, compared with 2 years across all Article 120 cases in those services.
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Trends › By Offense › Article 120 › With Article 81
Short answer: 23 Army, Navy, and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013–2026 charged both sexual assault under Article 120 and conspiracy under Article 81. The median confinement after conviction was 5 years, compared with 2 years across all Article 120 cases in those services. 42% of the contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal, compared with 49% for Article 120 cases overall.
Long Confinement Terms
18 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. 14 of those sentences included confinement (78%). The median confinement was 5 years, longer than the 2 years across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120. A quarter of the terms were 12 years or longer.
These figures are adjudged sentences: what was announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. A sentence covers every charge in the case, so the conspiracy charge and any other charges are part of it.
How Contested Cases Ended
12 contested cases reached a verdict. 42% of them ended in a full acquittal, lower than the 49% across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120. Another 5 ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.
Pleas Recorded
The plea is listed for 16 of the 23 cases. 12 accused contested at least one charge, and 4 pleaded guilty. The contested share was 75%, compared with 69% across all Article 120 cases in these services. A contested case is one with a not-guilty or mixed plea.
Punitive Discharges
Among enlisted members convicted in this group, 71% received a punitive discharge. That was 4 bad-conduct discharges and 8 dishonorable discharges. The share across all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120 was 82%.
The group includes 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer form of a punitive discharge. Where a sentence has no punitive discharge, an administrative separation can still follow later.
Rank and Court Level
Most of the accused were junior enlisted members: 16, with 6 NCOs and 1 officer. Compared with all Army, Navy, and Marine Corps cases charging Article 120, this group was more junior.
General courts-martial heard 19 of the 23 cases (83%). Special courts-martial heard the other cases. Only a general court-martial can adjudge a dishonorable discharge or confinement beyond one year, since a special court-martial is capped at one year.
Other Charges
None of the 23 cases charged Article 120 alone. Across all Article 120 cases in these services, 322 of 1266 did. Article 81 appears in all 23 by definition. Article 134, the general article, appeared in 7 cases and Article 128, assault, in 6. Article 92, orders violation, and Article 131b, obstruction (numbered since 2019), appeared in 5 each.
Years and Installations
The first case was tried in April 2013 and the latest in August 2026. The year with the most cases was 2021, with 6. There were 3 in 2019 and 3 in 2026, a partial year. The other years had 2 or fewer, and 2014, 2015, and 2018 had none.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 4 cases. Jacksonville, Florida, Fort Polk, Pensacola, Florida, and Twentynine Palms, California had 2 each. These five installations account for 52% of the 23 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a count alone is not a finding about a base.
Law Changes and Limits of the Data
On January 1, 2019, the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect, and Article 120 was amended for offenses on or after that date, after an earlier rewrite in 2012. Then, from December 28, 2023, special trial counsel took over the decision to prosecute covered offenses, which include Article 120.
Offense dates are not in the records, only trial dates. For that reason the records cannot sort cases by the rules that applied. Evidence, plea terms, nonjudicial punishment, and administrative separations are also outside these records.
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.
How We Counted
Army, Navy, and Marine Corps courts-martial that charged both Article 120 and Article 81 (23 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 120 (Rape and Sexual Assault): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Article 81 (Conspiracy): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Articles 120 and 128 in the Same Case: What the Records Show
- Articles 120 and 134 in the Same Case: What the Records Show
- When Article 120 and Article 120b Are Charged Together, How Do Cases End?
- Fewer or More? Sexual Assault Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025
- Is Air Force Sexual Assault Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 120, 2016–2025
- Article 120 explained on the law firm's website
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.