Guilty Pleas in 2023: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial
Federal dismissals were 9% of the 72,255 defendants whose cases ended in fiscal year 2023, and trials were 3%. In 2023, 634 of 997 courts-martial with a plea on record (64%) were guilty pleas, compared with 97% of 64,124 people sentenced in federal court.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › Guilty Pleas in Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial, Year by Ye › Guilty Pleas in 2023
In brief: Federal dismissals were 9% of the 72,255 defendants whose cases ended in fiscal year 2023, and trials were 3%. In 2023, 634 of 997 courts-martial with a plea on record (64%) were guilty pleas, compared with 97% of 64,124 people sentenced in federal court.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 64,124 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2023 and the Federal Judicial Center's records of 72,255 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal year 2023, 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 Many Federal Cases Were Dismissed in Fiscal Year 2023?
The Federal Judicial Center counted 6,249 dismissals among 72,255 defendants (9%). Guilty pleas numbered 64,166 (89%), and trials numbered 1,840 (3%).
A total of 65,743 defendants (91%) were convicted. The rest had their cases dismissed or were acquitted at trial.
What Did Federal Trials Show in 2023?
Of the 1,840 trials, 263 ended in an acquittal (14%). The 1,596 jury trials produced 184 acquittals (12%). The 244 bench trials, decided by a judge, produced 79 acquittals (32%).
Bench trials ended in acquittal more often than jury trials did.
What Did the Sentencing Commission Count?
The Commission counted 64,124 people sentenced in 2023. Guilty pleas were 62,300 (97%), and 1,824 people were convicted at trial. About 77% of the guilty pleas included a written plea agreement.
Because this count excludes acquittals and dismissals, its guilty plea share is higher than the Federal Judicial Center share.
What Do the 2023 Court-Martial Rows Show?
Army courts-martial had 322 guilty pleas in 469 cases, and Air Force courts-martial had 105 in 225. The Navy had 90 in 148, and the Marine Corps had 117 in 155.
The combined rate of 64% is higher than the 63% in 2022 and lower than the 67% in 2024. The count of cases with a plea on record was 997, down from 1,099 in 2022.
| 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 Do the Neighboring Years Compare in the Table?
The Sentencing Commission share was 97% in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The Federal Judicial Center share was 89% in 2022 and 2023, then 91% in 2024.
The court-martial rate rose each year over the same period, from 63% in 2022 to 64% in 2023 and 67% in 2024. The case counts were 1,099, 997, and 1,046.
These changes are small, and the records do not show whether they reflect any change in practice.
Why Do the Federal Guilty Plea Shares Differ?
The Sentencing Commission excludes everyone who was not convicted. For 2023 that leaves 64,124 sentenced people, and 97% of them pleaded guilty. The Federal Judicial Center keeps dismissed cases in the total of 72,255, and the share who pleaded guilty falls to 89%.
Neither number is a court-martial rate. The court-martial rate of 64% comes from cases in which a plea was recorded, so cases that were dismissed or never referred to trial are not in it.
What Does a Guilty Plea Mean in Each System?
In both federal court and a court-martial, a guilty plea is the accused admitting the charge in court. In a court-martial, a military judge questions the accused about the plea before accepting it. In federal court, a judge does the same.
The records here count the pleas. They do not show how many accused people were offered a plea agreement and turned it down.
What Can and Cannot Be Said About 2023?
The table shows small changes in the court-martial rate from year to year. The records do not show whether those changes are meaningful, and they do not show why they occurred.
The comparison also leaves out offense, charge, and sentence. It reports recorded pleas only.
How We Counted
Courts-martial with a trial date in 2023 and a plea recorded (997). Federal: people sentenced in fiscal year 2023 (64,124, U.S. Sentencing Commission) and defendants whose cases ended that fiscal year (72,255, 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 2022: Federal Court vs. Courts-Martial (previous or next year)
- Guilty Pleas in 2024: 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.