> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Does Every Court-Martial Conviction Bring a Punitive Discharge? - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/does-every-court-martial-conviction-bring-a-punitive-discharge/ - Published: 2026-10-30T05:30:56.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:20:42.000Z - Description: No. Of the 4361 courts-martial with a convicted enlisted member in Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps records from 2021–2025, a punitive discharge followed 65% of the convictions: 1935 bad-conduct discharges and 912 dishonorable discharges. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › Does Every Court-Martial Conviction Bring a Punitive Discharge? **Short answer:** No. Of the 4361 courts-martial with a convicted enlisted member in Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps records from 2021–2025, a punitive discharge followed 65% of the convictions: 1935 bad-conduct discharges and 912 dishonorable discharges. The rest of the sentences had no punitive discharge, although a later administrative separation was still possible. Based on 4361 cases · 2021–2025 · Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## What Counts as a Punitive Discharge For enlisted members, the punitive discharges a court-martial can adjudge are the bad-conduct discharge and the dishonorable discharge. For officers, the equivalent is a dismissal. Administrative separations are handled outside the court-martial and are not in these records. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable one. Since 2019, a special court-martial tried by a military judge alone cannot impose any punitive discharge, and its confinement is capped at six months. ## 65% of Enlisted Convictions Included One Among the 4361 enlisted convictions, 1935 sentences included a bad-conduct discharge and 912 included a dishonorable discharge. Together that is 65% of enlisted convictions, the same as the 65% across all convictions in those years. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not end the matter for a career. The command can still pursue an administrative separation later, and these records do not show whether that happened. ## The Court Level Sets the Limits 2366 of these cases were general courts-martial, and 1943 were special courts-martial. The court level is not listed for 52 cases. The general share was 55%, compared with 56% across all convictions in those years. At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 1.1 years, and 29% of cases were contested. At special courts-martial, the median was 3 months, and 19% were contested. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year, so only a general court-martial can adjudge more than that. ## Confinement Was More Common Than a Discharge Confinement was part of 84% of the 4361 convictions, a higher share than the 65% with a punitive discharge. The median confinement was 6 months. 6 sentences were confinement for life. 690 convictions had no confinement (16%). 1744 were sentenced to under 6 months (40%), and 800 to 6 months to 1 year (18%). 1127 convictions (26%) were sentenced to more than one year, about the same as the 25% across all convictions in those years. Of those, 301 were 5 years or more. These are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial and before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all convictions in those years | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------- | | No confinement | 690 | 16% | 18% | | Under 6 months | 1744 | 40% | 39% | | 6 months to 1 year | 800 | 18% | 18% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 826 | 19% | 18% | | 5 years or more | 301 | 7% | 7% | ## Charges in These Cases 4336 of the 4361 records list the charges. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 1009 cases (23%), and Article 134, the general article, in 995 (23%). Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) appeared in 721 cases, and Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) in 702. Domestic violence under Article 128b appeared in 555 cases, and rape and sexual assault under Article 120 in 528\. A case is counted once under each article it charges, so one case can appear in several rows. | UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all convictions in those years | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------- | ------------------------------------- | | [Art. 128](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Assault | 1009 | 23% | 23% | | [Art. 134](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-134/?ref=bodiesburied.com) General article | 995 | 23% | 23% | | [Art. 92](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-92/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Failure to obey order or regulation | 721 | 17% | 17% | | [Art. 112a](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-112a-drug-offenses/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 702 | 16% | 16% | | [Art. 128b](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-128b-domestic-violence/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Domestic violence | 555 | 13% | 13% | | [Art. 120](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-120-sexual-assault/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault | 528 | 12% | 12% | | [Art. 121](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-121/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Larceny | 319 | 7% | 7% | | [Art. 120b](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-120b/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault of a child | 308 | 7% | 7% | ## Conviction on the Charged Article A conviction on one charge does not mean a conviction on every charge. Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article in 697 of 702 cases. Article 128 did so in 948 of 1009 cases, the lowest share among the top charges. The median confinement when convicted of Article 134 was 1.2 years. A conviction on Article 128 carried a median of 6 months. Convictions on Article 92 and Article 112a each carried a median of 4 months. | Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it | | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------- | ----------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | Art. 128 Assault | 1009 | 948 (94%) | 6 months | | Art. 134 General article | 995 | 948 (95%) | 1.2 years | | Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 721 | 697 (97%) | 4 months | | Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 702 | 697 (99%) | 4 months | ## Pleas and Partial Acquittals The plea is listed in 4285 of the 4361 records. 3231 accused pleaded guilty, and 1054 entered a not-guilty or mixed plea. A case with a not-guilty or mixed plea is a contested case. The contested share was 25%. 472 of the 1054 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal (45%). In those cases, the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. Cases charging Article 112a ended in a guilty plea 84% of the time (576 of 685). Cases charging Article 128 did so 70% of the time (698 of 997). ## Rank, Installations, and Years Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 65% of the accused, and NCOs made up 35%. Across all convictions in those years, junior enlisted members were 61%. Camp Pendleton, California, had 235 of these cases, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had 214, Fort Hood had 189, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord and San Diego, California, each had 165\. These 5 installations account for 22% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of all kinds. The yearly count was 991 in 2021, 901 in 2022, 795 in 2023, 873 in 2024, and 801 in 2025. ## Limits of the Records Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses, and for offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence. Both depend on the offense date, which the records do not give. The records also do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled outside a court-martial. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Convicted enlisted members, all services, trial dates 2021–2025 (4361); 2847 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub) - [Are Convicted Military Officers Dismissed?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/are-convicted-military-officers-dismissed/) - [Can a Special Court-Martial Give a Dishonorable Discharge?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/can-a-special-court-martial-give-a-dishonorable-discharge/) - [Court-Martial Sentences: Junior Enlisted Members Compared With NCOs](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/court-martial-sentences-junior-enlisted-vs-ncos/) - [Does Pleading Guilty at a Court-Martial Mean Confinement?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/does-pleading-guilty-at-a-court-martial-mean-confinement/) - [How Often Do Army Courts-Martial End in a Partial Acquittal?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-often-do-army-courts-martial-end-in-a-partial-acquittal/) - [How Often Do Contested Courts-Martial End in a Full Acquittal?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-often-do-contested-courts-martial-end-in-acquittal/) - [Judge Alone or Members: How Contested Army and Air Force Cases Ended](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/judge-alone-or-members-court-martial-outcomes/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.