Guilty Pleas in 2018: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial
In fiscal year 2018, 71% of federal guilty pleas among people sentenced had a written plea agreement, and 67,610 of 69,425 sentenced people (97%) pleaded guilty. In courts-martial with a 2018 trial date and a plea on record, 336 of 575 (58%) were guilty pleas.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2018, 71% of federal guilty pleas among people sentenced had a written plea agreement, and 67,610 of 69,425 sentenced people (97%) pleaded guilty. In courts-martial with a 2018 trial date and a plea on record, 336 of 575 (58%) were guilty pleas.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 69,425 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2018 and the Federal Judicial Center's records of 79,704 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal year 2018, 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.
How Common Were Federal Plea Agreements in 2018?
A plea agreement is a written deal between the defendant and the prosecutor. The U.S. Sentencing Commission found one in 71% of the guilty pleas it counted for fiscal year 2018.
The Commission counted 69,425 people sentenced that year. Of these, 67,610 (97%) pleaded guilty, and 1,815 were convicted at trial. Only convicted people are in this count.
What Does the Wider Federal Count Show?
The Federal Judicial Center counted 79,704 defendants whose cases ended in fiscal year 2018. It reports 71,550 guilty pleas (90%), 6,275 dismissals (8%), and 1,879 trials (2%).
A total of 73,109 defendants (92%) were convicted. This count includes people whose cases were dismissed, which is why its guilty plea share is lower than the Sentencing Commission share.
How Often Did the 1,879 Federal Trials End in Acquittal?
There were 320 acquittals among the 1,879 trials (17%). Jury trials made up 1,661 of the trials, with 237 acquittals (14%). The 218 bench trials had 83 acquittals (38%).
The bench trial acquittal rate was the highest of the acquittal rates reported for 2018. Bench trials were also the smaller group, so the figure is based on fewer cases.
What Did the 2018 Court-Martial Data Contain?
The 2018 court-martial data has 575 cases with a plea on record. Navy cases had 159 guilty pleas out of 220, and Marine Corps cases had 177 out of 182. Air Force cases show 0 of 173.
The Air Force zero is a gap in the records. Plea information is missing for most Air Force trials before 2020, so it cannot be read as the true share. The table below shows the full series from 2016 to 2025.
| Year | Courts-martial: guilty pleas | Federal sentenced: pleaded guilty | Federal cases ended: pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 176 of 356 (49%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2017 | 361 of 578 (62%) | 97% | 90% |
| 2018 | 336 of 575 (58%) | 97% | 90% |
| 2019 | 329 of 539 (61%) | 98% | 90% |
| 2020 | 465 of 663 (70%) | 98% | 91% |
| 2021 | 753 of 1,214 (62%) | 98% | 90% |
| 2022 | 688 of 1,099 (63%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2023 | 634 of 997 (64%) | 97% | 89% |
| 2024 | 702 of 1,046 (67%) | 97% | 91% |
| 2025 | 669 of 959 (70%) | 98% | 92% |
How Does 2018 Sit Next to 2017 and 2019?
The 2018 court-martial rate was 58%, based on 336 guilty pleas in 575 cases. In 2017 the rate was 62% (361 of 578), and in 2019 it was 61% (329 of 539). The 2018 figure is the lowest of these years.
The federal share of guilty pleas among people sentenced was 97% in 2018, the same as in 2017. It was 98% in 2019. The share of guilty pleas with a written plea agreement is reported here only for 2018, at 71%.
How to Read the 2018 Row of the Table
In the table, the 2018 row shows 336 of 575 for courts-martial, 97% for people sentenced in federal court, and 90% for federal cases that ended. The 97% and 90% describe different groups, and neither is a court-martial rate.
What the 2018 Comparison Does Not Settle
The court-martial data does not say whether any guilty plea came with a pretrial agreement in 2018, so the 71% federal figure has no match on the military side in this post.
The records also do not explain differences in plea rates between federal court and the military. They report counts, not reasons.
How We Counted
Courts-martial with a trial date in 2018 and a plea recorded (575). Federal: people sentenced in fiscal year 2018 (69,425, U.S. Sentencing Commission) and defendants whose cases ended that fiscal year (79,704, Federal Judicial Center).
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 Pleas in 2017: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial (previous or next year)
- Guilty Pleas in 2019: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial (previous or next year)
- 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.