Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Courts-Martial, 2019–2023: What 283 Cases Show
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 283 courts-martial from 2019–2023, 14% of the Navy and Marine Corps total. Only 1 of 40 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (2%), compared with 29% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 7 min read
Trends › By Installation › Camp Lejeune, North Carolina › 2019–2023
Short answer: Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 283 courts-martial from 2019–2023, 14% of the Navy and Marine Corps total. Only 1 of 40 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (2%), compared with 29% across the Navy and Marine Corps. 82% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 63%.
1 Full Acquittal in 40 Contested Cases
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 40 contested cases with a verdict at Camp Lejeune, 1 ended in a full acquittal (2%). That is lower than the 29% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Another 9 ended in a partial acquittal (22%), meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.
Contested cases were also less common here. Only 156 of the 283 records list a plea. Of those, 40 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 116 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 26%, compared with 31% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Punitive Discharges Were More Common Than Service-Wide
For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Officers receive a dismissal instead. 82% of enlisted convictions here included one: 160 bad-conduct and 39 dishonorable. Navy and Marine Corps-wide, the share was 63%. 5 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in these records, and 4 were dismissed.
The rate was also 82% in 2017–2018. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Orders, Drug, and Assault Charges
The charge lists cover 263 of the 283 cases. A case charging several articles counts under each one. Article 112a (drug) appeared in 33% of cases, compared with 25% service-wide. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 30%, compared with 18%. Article 128 (assault) appeared less often, in 26% compared with 31%.
Article 81 (conspiracy) appeared in 10% of cases, compared with 7%. Article 131b (obstructing justice) appeared in 9%, compared with 6%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 87 | 33% | 25% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 79 | 30% | 18% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 68 | 26% | 31% |
| Art. 134 General article | 54 | 21% | 18% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 32 | 12% | 9% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 29 | 11% | 14% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 27 | 10% | 7% |
| Art. 131b Obstructing justice | 23 | 9% | 6% |
Convictions and Pleas by Charge
Every case charging Article 128 or Article 134 ended in a conviction on that article: 68 of 68 and 54 of 54. Article 92 cases ended in a conviction on that article in 77 of 79, and Article 112a cases in 84 of 87. The median confinement for a conviction was 1.7 years for Article 134, 9 months for Article 112a, 7 months for Article 92, and 6 months for Article 128.
Guilty pleas differed by charge. Among cases with a plea recorded, those charging Article 112a ended in a guilty plea 81% of the time (39 of 48), the highest among the top charges. Those charging Article 92 ended in a guilty plea 59% of the time (30 of 51). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the case.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 87 | 84 (97%) | 9 months |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 79 | 77 (97%) | 7 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 68 | 68 (100%) | 6 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 54 | 54 (100%) | 1.7 years |
How Much Confinement?
256 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. 227 of those sentences included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 8 months, longer than the 6 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of terms were 1.4 years or longer.
77 of the 256 convictions (30%) carried more than one year, compared with 24% service-wide. Terms of more than 1 year but under 5 years made up 27% of convictions, compared with 19%. Terms of 6 months to 1 year made up 28%, compared with 24%. 11% of convictions carried no confinement, compared with 17%. The median confinement was 1.5 years at the 122 general courts-martial and 5 months at the 161 special courts-martial. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, Navy and Marine Corps-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 29 | 11% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 78 | 30% | 35% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 72 | 28% | 24% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 68 | 27% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 9 | 4% | 5% |
Rank and Court Level
The accused were 196 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 49 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 5 officers or warrant officers. That group is more junior than in the service as a whole, where 64% were junior enlisted.
The general court-martial share was 43%, about the same as the 44% Navy and Marine Corps-wide. A general court-martial can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year.
Cases by Year and Compared with 2017–2018
There were 62 cases in 2019, 51 in 2020, 90 in 2021, 48 in 2022, and 32 in 2023. The comparison period, 2017–2018, covers the 2 years with cases on record. The records hold 140 cases from those years, about 70 a year, compared with about 57 a year since, counting full years only.
Several measures were about the same in both periods. The median confinement was 8 months in both. Punitive discharges were 82% in both. The general court-martial share was 42% and then 43%. Convictions with confinement were 93% and then 89%.
| 2017–2018 | 2019–2023 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 140 | 283 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 0 of 4 | 26% |
| Convictions with confinement | 93% | 89% |
| Median confinement | 8 months | 8 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 82% | 82% |
| General courts-martial | 42% | 43% |
Compared with Camp Pendleton and Norfolk
Camp Pendleton, California and Norfolk, Virginia tried a similar number of cases. At Camp Pendleton, 21% of cases were contested, and 0 of 31 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. Its median confinement was 6 months, and its punitive discharge rate was 67%. At Norfolk, 35% of cases were contested, and 29 of 70 ended in a full acquittal. Its median was 6 months, and its rate was 62%. Camp Lejeune had the longest median confinement and the highest punitive discharge rate of these installations.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Lejeune, North Carolina | 283 | 26% | 1 of 40 | 8 months | 82% |
| Camp Pendleton, California | 291 | 21% | 0 of 31 | 6 months | 67% |
| Norfolk, Virginia | 205 | 35% | 29 of 70 | 6 months | 62% |
What the Records Do Not Show
Trial records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, plea terms, or offense dates, and they leave out conduct handled outside a court-martial. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so plea counts use only the records that list one.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina with a trial date in 2019–2023 (283 cases), compared with all 1,991 Navy and Marine Corps trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2017–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 140 Cases (another period)
- What Was Tried at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2024–2026? 119 Courts-Martial (another period)
- What Was Tried at Camp Pendleton, California, 2019–2023? 291 Courts-Martial (same years, similar size)
- What Was Tried at Norfolk, Virginia, 2019–2023? 205 Courts-Martial (same years, similar size)
- Drug Cases at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: 2017–2018 vs. 2019–2023
- Did Orders Violation Cases at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Change After 2019?
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2019–2023
- Eric Catto
- Keaton Harrell
- Nicholas Henry
- Glen Hines
- Ryan Lipton
- William Mossor
- Kyle Phillips
- Benjamin Robertson
- Ryan Stormer
- Adam Workman
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.