Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Navy Courts-Martial, 2016–2025
In the Navy data, 1,306 of 1,930 courts-martial with a plea on record (68%) ended in a guilty plea from 2016 to 2025. Federal courts recorded 97% guilty pleas among people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The Navy rate was 73% in 2016 and 65% in 2025, and the lowest yearly figure was 60%.
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In brief: In the Navy data, 1,306 of 1,930 courts-martial with a plea on record (68%) ended in a guilty plea from 2016 to 2025. Federal courts recorded 97% guilty pleas among people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. The Navy rate was 73% in 2016 and 65% in 2025, and the lowest yearly figure was 60%.
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 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 Navy Courts-Martial Were Guilty Pleas?
The Navy data has 1,930 courts-martial with a trial date in 2016 to 2025 and a plea on record. Guilty pleas were 1,306 (68%). Mixed pleas were 99 (5%), and not-guilty pleas were 525 (27%).
Only 23 Navy cases have no plea recorded. That makes the Navy plea record much more complete than the Air Force record.
How Did the Navy Rate Move Between 2016 and 2025?
The table below gives the Navy count for each trial year. Unlike the Army and Air Force, the Navy has records in every year from 2016.
Navy guilty pleas were 172 of 237 cases (73%) in 2016 and 175 of 236 (74%) in 2017. The rate was 72% in both 2018 and 2019, then 70% in 2020.
In 2021 the Navy rate was 60% (114 of 190). It was 62% in 2022, 61% in 2023, 60% in 2024, and 65% in 2025 (98 of 151). The number of Navy cases with a plea on record was smaller in later years than in 2016.
| Year | Navy: guilty pleas | Federal sentenced: pleaded guilty | Federal cases ended: pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 172 of 237 (73%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2017 | 175 of 236 (74%) | 97% | 90% |
| 2018 | 159 of 220 (72%) | 97% | 90% |
| 2019 | 166 of 230 (72%) | 98% | 90% |
| 2020 | 122 of 175 (70%) | 98% | 91% |
| 2021 | 114 of 190 (60%) | 98% | 90% |
| 2022 | 111 of 178 (62%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2023 | 90 of 148 (61%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2024 | 99 of 165 (60%) | 97% | 91% |
| 2025 | 98 of 151 (65%) | 98% | 92% |
Did Navy Guilty Pleas Come With Plea Agreements?
The record shows whether there was a plea agreement for 1,295 Navy guilty pleas. Of these, 1,270 (98%) had an agreement.
In federal court, 74% of guilty pleas among people sentenced had a written plea agreement. These figures describe different systems, and the federal figure covers sentenced people only.
How Do the Federal Numbers Differ?
The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 659,036 people sentenced in fiscal years 2016 to 2025, and 642,522 (97%) of them pleaded guilty. Only convicted people are in this count.
The Federal Judicial Center counted 753,808 defendants whose cases ended. Of these, 90% pleaded guilty, 8% had cases dismissed, and 2% went to trial. The count of 678,652 guilty pleas is the base for the 90%.
The federal guilty plea rate was higher than the Navy rate under either count, and the table shows the same pattern in each year.
Why a Court-Martial Rate Is Not Directly Comparable
A federal felony case generally needs a grand jury indictment, and federal prosecutors choose which cases to bring. A court-martial has no grand jury, and the convening authority decides whether to refer a case to trial.
Federal figures use fiscal years, which begin in October. Navy figures use the calendar year of the trial date. The records cannot show whether these differences change the comparison.
What the Records Cannot Show
The Navy data does not show why a sailor chose to plead guilty or to contest the case. It also does not show the offenses charged, and rates can differ widely between offenses.
The comparison describes recorded outcomes only. It is not legal advice.
How We Counted
Navy: courts-martial with a trial date in 2016 to 2025 and a plea recorded (1,930). 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 (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Year (overview)
- Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Army Courts-Martial, 2016–2025
- Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025
- Guilty Plea Rates: Federal Court vs. Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2016–2025
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (court-martial data)
- 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.