> ## 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. # Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rate-vs-air-force-courts-martial/ - Published: 2026-11-03T01:39:06.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-03T01:39:06.000Z - Description: Air Force courts-martial had the lowest guilty plea rate of any service in this data: 704 of 1,940 cases with a recorded plea (36%) from 2016 to 2025. In federal court, 97% of people sentenced pleaded guilty in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. Air Force plea information is missing for most trials before 2 - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Federal [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) › [Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Ye](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rates-vs-courts-martial/) › Guilty Pleas: Air Force **In brief:** Air Force courts-martial had the lowest guilty plea rate of any service in this data: 704 of 1,940 cases with a recorded plea (36%) from 2016 to 2025\. In federal court, 97% of people sentenced pleaded guilty in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. Air Force plea information is missing for most trials before 2020, so the combined Air Force figure is incomplete. Updated November 2, 2026 · Sources: U.S. Sentencing Commission and Federal Judicial Center, fiscal years 2016–2025 · Military Trial Results This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 659,036 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal years 2016 to 2025 and the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 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](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) series, which builds on [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/). How the numbers were built: [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/). ## Why Is the Air Force Guilty Plea Rate So Low? The Air Force data has 1,940 courts-martial with a trial date in 2016 to 2025 and a plea on record. Of these, 704 (36%) were guilty pleas, 0 were mixed pleas, and 1,236 (64%) were not-guilty pleas. The combined rate for all years is not a reliable measure of Air Force practice. Another 855 Air Force cases have no plea recorded, and plea information is missing for most trials before 2020. ## What Does the Year-by-Year Table Show? The table below lists the Air Force count for each trial year. For 2016, 2017, and 2018 it shows 0 guilty pleas out of 113, 155, and 173 cases. For 2019 it shows 1 of 147. The data has plea information missing for most trials in those years, so these figures are a gap in the records. They should not be read as 0% of accused members pleading guilty. From 2020 on the Air Force figures are more complete. They were 52% in 2020 (117 of 226), 49% in 2021, 53% in 2022, 47% in 2023, 55% in 2024, and 59% in 2025 (102 of 173). | Year | Air Force: guilty pleas | Federal sentenced: pleaded guilty | Federal cases ended: pleaded guilty | | ---- | ----------------------- | --------------------------------- | ----------------------------------- | | 2016 | 0 of 113 (0%) | 97% | 89% | | 2017 | 0 of 155 (0%) | 97% | 90% | | 2018 | 0 of 173 (0%) | 97% | 90% | | 2019 | 1 of 147 (less than 1%) | 98% | 90% | | 2020 | 117 of 226 (52%) | 98% | 91% | | 2021 | 130 of 267 (49%) | 98% | 90% | | 2022 | 142 of 266 (53%) | 97% | 89% | | 2023 | 105 of 225 (47%) | 97% | 89% | | 2024 | 107 of 195 (55%) | 97% | 91% | | 2025 | 102 of 173 (59%) | 98% | 92% | ## How Does 2020 to 2025 Compare With Federal Court? Even in the years with fuller records, the Air Force share of guilty pleas was lower than the federal share. Federal figures were between 97% and 98% for people sentenced in every year of the table. The Air Force figure counts cases with a plea on record. The federal figure counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. A person acquitted or dismissed in federal court is not in that sentenced group. ## What Do the Federal Counts Include? The U.S. Sentencing Commission data covers 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025\. Of these, 642,522 (97%) pleaded guilty, and 74% of those guilty pleas had a written plea agreement. The Federal Judicial Center counts all 753,808 defendants whose cases ended in the same period. In that count 678,652 (90%) pleaded guilty, 58,307 (8%) had their cases dismissed, and 16,849 (2%) went to trial. The lower Federal Judicial Center rate is the closer comparison to a court-martial count that includes contested cases. Even so, dismissals are part of the federal count and have no direct match here. ## What Contested Means in a Court-Martial A court-martial is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. In the Air Force data every contested case is a not-guilty plea, because the data shows no mixed pleas. The combined Air Force data lists 64% of known pleas as not guilty, a larger share than in the other services. The records do not show how the missing pre-2020 plea information would change that share. ## What the Records Cannot Show The records do not show the reason for any plea, the offense charged, or whether the missing cases would have raised or lowered the Air Force rate. A reader comparing services should use the 2020 to 2025 rows and treat the earlier rows as incomplete. This post is a description of records and not legal advice. ### How We Counted Air Force: courts-martial with a trial date in 2016 to 2025 and a plea recorded (1,940). Federal: 659,036 people sentenced (U.S. Sentencing Commission) and 753,808 defendants whose cases ended (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. **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. **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. ## Related Analysis - [Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/military-sentencing-guidelines-federal-system/) (the background article) - [Federal Prosecution Analysis](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal/) (all federal posts) - [How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-data-methodology/) (sources and method) - [Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rates-vs-courts-martial/) (overview) - [Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Army Courts-Martial, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rate-vs-army-courts-martial/) - [Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Navy Courts-Martial, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rate-vs-navy-courts-martial/) - [Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-guilty-plea-rate-vs-marine-corps-courts-martial/) - [Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial/) (court-martial data) - [U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles](https://www.ussc.gov/research/datafiles/commission-datafiles?ref=bodiesburied.com) (source) - [Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants)](https://www.fjc.gov/research/idb?ref=bodiesburied.com) (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](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.