Guilty Pleas in Drug Possession Cases: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial
In federal court, 98% of the 6,268 people sentenced for simple possession under 21 U.S.C. 844 pleaded guilty. In courts-martial charging drug possession, 171 of the 229 cases with a plea recorded (75%) were guilty pleas. The court-martial and federal rates start from different groups of cases, which
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 8 min read
Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Federal Law Has No Crime of Drug Use › Drug Possession: Guilty Pleas
In brief: In federal court, 98% of the 6,268 people sentenced for simple possession under 21 U.S.C. 844 pleaded guilty. In courts-martial charging drug possession, 171 of the 229 cases with a plea recorded (75%) were guilty pleas. The court-martial and federal rates start from different groups of cases, which the sections below explain.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 6,268 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and the Federal Judicial Center's records of 9,740 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, compared with court-martial results from this site's Military Trial Results data (updated November 2, 2026). It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
What Share of Court-Martial Drug Cases Ended in a Guilty Plea?
The court-martial records have a plea recorded for 229 cases charging wrongful possession under Article 112a, with trial dates from 2016 to 2025. Of those, 171 (75%) were guilty pleas. Another 12 (5%) were mixed pleas, and 46 (20%) were not-guilty pleas.
A further 99 cases charging this offense have no plea recorded. The 75% figure therefore describes only the cases where the record is complete.
How Often Did Federal Defendants Plead Guilty?
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counts 6,268 people sentenced under a conviction for simple possession in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Of them, 6,160 (98%) pleaded guilty, and 108 were convicted after a trial.
This count includes only people who were convicted and sentenced. A defendant whose case was dismissed or ended in an acquittal is not in it, so 98% is a share of convicted people, not of everyone charged.
Another Federal Count Includes Dismissals
The Federal Judicial Center counts every defendant charged under 21 U.S.C. 844 whose case ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025: 9,740 in all. Of them, 6,285 (65%) pleaded guilty, and 3,419 (35%) had their cases dismissed. Only 36 went to trial.
In total, 6,310 of the 9,740 (65%) were convicted, by plea or at trial. This count is the closer match to a court-martial record, which also includes cases that did not end in a conviction.
Plea Agreements
Among federal guilty pleas, 73% had a written plea agreement, and 23% were straight pleas with no agreement. Court-martial plea agreement records are mostly from the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. Of 90 court-martial guilty pleas where the records show whether there was an agreement, 83 (92%) had one.
The court-martial sample is small, and it leaves out most Air Force cases. These agreement rates are not directly comparable.
Plea Rates by Service
Guilty plea shares differed by service. The Army had 26 guilty pleas in 28 cases with a plea recorded (93%), and the Marine Corps had 50 in 62 (81%). The Navy had 20 in 27 (74%), and the Air Force had 75 in 112 (67%).
Air Force plea information is missing for most trials before 2020, which affects the Air Force figure.
| Service | Cases with a plea recorded | Guilty pleas | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 28 | 26 | 93% |
| Air Force | 112 | 75 | 67% |
| Navy | 27 | 20 | 74% |
| Marine Corps | 62 | 50 | 81% |
Plea Rates by Year
The yearly court-martial counts are very small before 2020, with 9 or fewer cases a year, because plea information is missing. From 2020 to 2024, guilty pleas ranged from 82% to 87% of cases with a plea recorded. In 2025 it was 15 of 21 (71%).
The federal guilty plea share among those sentenced was more than 99% in 2016 and 2017 and 96% in 2025. The records do not show why the court-martial share changed in 2025, and 21 cases is a small number.
| Year | Courts-martial: guilty pleas | Federal: pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 3 of 9 (3 of 9) | more than 99% |
| 2017 | 2 of 7 (2 of 7) | more than 99% |
| 2018 | 1 of 7 (1 of 7) | 99% |
| 2019 | 2 of 9 (2 of 9) | 98% |
| 2020 | 32 of 39 (82%) | 97% |
| 2021 | 45 of 53 (85%) | 97% |
| 2022 | 27 of 32 (84%) | 96% |
| 2023 | 26 of 30 (87%) | 95% |
| 2024 | 18 of 22 (82%) | 95% |
| 2025 | 15 of 21 (71%) | 96% |
What the Plea Rates Cannot Show
A court-martial is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Federal data lists trials rather than not-guilty pleas, so the court-martial share of not-guilty pleas and the federal trial share are not the same measure.
The records also do not show what a plea agreement contained, or whether a plea was offered and refused. They show how cases ended, not how the decision to plead was made.
How We Counted
Courts-martial: every court-martial charging drug possession (Article 112a wrongful possession; federal simple possession, 21 U.S.C. 844) with a trial date in 2016 to 2025 and a plea recorded (229). Federal: people sentenced under a conviction under 21 U.S.C. 844 (simple possession), any guideline (6,268, U.S. Sentencing Commission) and defendants charged under 21 U.S.C. 844 whose cases ended (9,740, Federal Judicial Center), fiscal years 2016 to 2025.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
Who is in each set of numbers. The federal sentencing numbers come from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. They count only people who were convicted and sentenced in federal district court. People whose cases were dismissed or who were acquitted are not in them. The military numbers come from court-martial results, which include acquittals. To compare acquittal or dismissal rates, the federal side uses a different source: the Federal Judicial Center's case data, which counts every defendant whose case ended.
Different cases reach each system. Federal prosecutors bring a narrow set of cases. In fiscal year 2024, immigration and drug trafficking cases were 59% of everyone sentenced in federal court (36,664 of 61,678). Many crimes that the military prosecutes, such as most assaults, most sexual assaults between adults, and drug use, are usually state crimes for civilians and reach federal court only in special situations, such as on federal land or in Indian Country. A federal case and a court-martial for the same crime can involve different kinds of facts.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
Offense categories do not line up exactly. Each comparison uses a federal offense group chosen to match the military article as closely as possible (see the crosswalk). Some matches are close; others are partial. The post says which federal guideline or statute was used and why it is not an exact match.
Drug use has no federal counterpart. Federal law does not make drug use a crime. A positive drug test is not a federal offense; a civilian can be charged only with possessing the drug. Bringing drugs onto a military installation is also a military-only offense. For these, the nearest federal charge is simple possession, and the post says that the match is not exact.
Plea agreements work differently. In federal court, most plea agreements do not bind the judge on the sentence. Since 2019, a military plea agreement can set a minimum and maximum sentence that the military judge must follow if the judge accepts the agreement. The federal numbers count anyone who pleaded guilty, with or without a written agreement.
How "plea" and "trial" are counted. In the federal sentencing numbers, "trial" means the person was convicted after a trial, including people who pleaded guilty to some counts and went to trial on others. People acquitted at trial are not in these numbers at all (see "Who is in each set of numbers"). In the federal case data, the trial rate counts both convictions and acquittals at trial among all defendants whose cases ended, including dismissed cases. Military numbers count contested cases that reached a verdict. These denominators are not the same, and each post states the one it uses.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- Federal Law Has No Crime of Drug Use: How Article 112a Cases Compare (overview)
- Drug Possession Sentences Since the 2023 Military Sentencing Reform: What the Data Shows So Far
- Drug Possession Charges: How Often Federal Trials and Courts-Martial End in Acquittal
- Drug Possession Charges: Federal Trial Acquittals vs. Contested Marine Corps Courts-Martial
- Drug Possession Convictions of Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4): Courts-Martial Compared With Federal Court
- Drug Possession Convictions of NCOs (E-5 to E-9): Courts-Martial Compared With Federal Court
- Drug Possession Convictions of Officers and Warrant Officers: Courts-Martial Compared With Federal Court
- Are Courts-Martial More Likely to End in Acquittal Than Federal Trials? (related comparison)
- Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Year (related comparison)
- Child Pornography Sentences: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, 2016–2025 (related comparison)
- Drug Distribution and Importation: Federal vs. Court-Martial Sentences, 2016–2025 (related comparison)
- Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 Courts-Martial (related comparison)
- Child Sexual Abuse and Enticement: Federal Cases vs. Article 120b Courts-Martial (related comparison)
- Theft and Fraud by Dollar Loss: Federal Sentences vs. Article 121 Courts-Martial (related comparison)
- Army Article 112a Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025 (court-martial data)
- What Sentence Follows an Army Drug Conviction? (court-martial data)
- How Often Are Contested Army Article 112a Cases Acquitted? (court-martial data)
- Guilty Pleas in Army Drug Cases: How Often, and What Came Next (court-martial data)
- Are Air Force Drug Courts-Martial Disappearing? Article 112a, 2016–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 112a Conviction in the Air Force? (court-martial data)
- Pleading Guilty to Article 112a in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed? (court-martial data)
- Is Navy-Marine Corps Drug Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 112a, 2017–2025 (court-martial data)
- How Much Confinement for an Article 112a Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps? (court-martial data)
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Drug Charge: How Contested Cases Ended (court-martial data)
- When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Guilty to Drug (court-martial data)
- Article 112a (Wrongful Use, Possession of Controlled Substances): Court-Martial Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- Article 112a UCMJ Drug Offenses and Positive Urinalysis (law firm reference page)
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
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.