What Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Tried in 2022
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 48 courts-martial in 2022. 77% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 64% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Camp Lejeune, North Carolina › 2022
Short answer: Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 48 courts-martial in 2022. 77% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 64% across the Navy and Marine Corps. The median confinement was 8 months, compared with 6 months service-wide, and none of the 9 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal.
Most Enlisted Convictions Included a Punitive Discharge
For enlisted members, the two punitive discharges are the bad-conduct discharge and the more severe dishonorable discharge. At Camp Lejeune in 2022, 77% of enlisted convictions included one: 29 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. Elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps, the rate was 64%.
No officers appear among the accused this year. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Article 134 and Article 90 Were Charged More Often
Article 134, the general article, was the most common charge. It appeared in 12 of the 44 cases with charges listed (27%), compared with 20% service-wide. Article 90 (willfully disobeying a superior officer) appeared in 11% of cases, compared with 4%. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 23%, compared with 18%.
Article 128 (assault) and Article 112a (drug) each appeared in 25% of cases, compared with 23% and 22% service-wide. Article 129 (burglary and unlawful entry) appeared in 9% of cases, compared with 4%. Each article counts once per case, so one case can appear in several rows.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 27% | 20% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 11 | 25% | 23% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 25% | 22% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 10 | 23% | 18% |
| Art. 90 Willfully disobeying superior officer | 5 | 11% | 4% |
| Art. 129 Burglary; unlawful entry | 4 | 9% | 4% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 3 | 7% | 4% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 3 | 7% | 6% |
Convictions on Every Top Charge
Every case charging one of the most common articles ended in a conviction on that article: Article 134 in 12 of 12, Article 128 and Article 112a in 11 of 11 each, and Article 92 in 10 of 10.
The median confinement for a conviction was 1.5 years with Article 134, 9 months with Article 92, 7 months with Article 128, and 5 months with Article 112a. Each median covers the whole sentence in those cases.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 12 (100%) | 1.5 years |
| Art. 128 Assault | 11 | 11 (100%) | 7 months |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 11 (100%) | 5 months |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 10 | 10 (100%) | 9 months |
Pleas and Verdicts
43 of the 48 records list a plea. Of those, 34 accused pleaded guilty and 9 entered not-guilty or mixed pleas, a contested share of 21%. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, the share was 33%.
None of the 9 contested cases with a verdict ended in a full acquittal. Guilty pleas also differed by charge. Cases charging Article 112a ended in a guilty plea 91% of the time (10 of 11). Cases charging Article 92 ended in a guilty plea 60% of the time (6 of 10). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty.
How Much Confinement?
44 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 39 of those included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 8 months. A quarter of terms were 1.3 years or longer. The figures are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
Confinement longer than one year came in 11 of 44 convictions (25%), compared with 20% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. 3 of those were 5 years or more. Terms of 6 months to 1 year made up 30% here, compared with 25%. Only 5 convictions (11%) carried no confinement, compared with 17%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 11% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 15 | 34% | 38% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 13 | 30% | 25% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8 | 18% | 16% |
| 5 years or more | 3 | 7% | 4% |
Fewer General Courts-Martial
A general court-martial can impose a dishonorable discharge and any lawful term of confinement. General courts-martial were 35% of the cases (17 of 48), compared with 42% service-wide. Every conviction at that level carried confinement, with a median of 1.6 years.
The other 31 cases were special courts-martial, which are capped at one year of confinement. At that level, 82% of convictions carried confinement, with a median of 4 months.
Rank of the Accused
The accused were 37 junior enlisted members, 7 NCOs, and 0 officers. That group is more junior than in the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole.
Compared with 2021 and Similar Installations
There were 90 cases in 2021 and 48 in 2022. The contested share was 25% and then 21%. The median confinement was 9 months and then 8 months. Enlisted punitive discharges were 82% and then 77%. The general court-martial share was 50% and then 35%. There were no full acquittals in either year: 0 of 21 and 0 of 9. A single year has few cases, so these changes show a direction only.
At Norfolk, Virginia (50 cases), 26% of cases were contested, 5 of 13 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal, and the median confinement was 3 months. At Camp Pendleton, California (61 cases), 33% were contested, 0 of 19 ended in a full acquittal, and the median was 6 months.
| 2021 | 2022 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 90 | 48 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 25% | 21% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 0 of 21 | 0 of 9 |
| Convictions with confinement | 87% | 89% |
| Median confinement | 9 months | 8 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 82% | 77% |
| General courts-martial | 50% | 35% |
What the Records Do Not Show
The records show trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. They do not cover cases handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Camp Lejeune, North Carolina | 48 | 21% | 0 of 9 | 8 months | 77% |
| Norfolk, Virginia | 50 | 26% | 5 of 13 | 3 months | 64% |
| Camp Pendleton, California | 61 | 33% | 0 of 19 | 6 months | 74% |
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina with a trial date in 2022 (48 cases).
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)
- By Year (hub)
- What Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Tried in 2021 (previous / next)
- What Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Tried in 2023 (previous / next)
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Courts-Martial, 2019–2023: What 283 Cases Show (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, 2022
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.