Fort Benning in 2024: 15 Courts-Martial, Year in Review
Fort Benning held 15 courts-martial in 2024, and NCOs made up 73% of the accused. All 13 convictions included confinement, with a median of 4 months, compared with 6 months across the Army. Of the convicted enlisted members, 62% received a punitive discharge, compared with 72% Army-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Fort Benning › 2024
Short answer: Fort Benning held 15 courts-martial in 2024, and NCOs made up 73% of the accused. All 13 convictions included confinement, with a median of 4 months, compared with 6 months across the Army. Of the convicted enlisted members, 62% received a punitive discharge, compared with 72% Army-wide.
NCOs Made Up Most of the Accused
NCOs were 73% of the accused at Fort Benning in 2024, and junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 27%. The records show 0 officers. Across the Army, junior enlisted members made up 53% of the accused.
General courts-martial made up 13 of the 15 cases (87%). Special courts-martial made up the other cases. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year.
Every Conviction Included Confinement
Of the 15 cases, 13 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and all 13 sentences included confinement (100%). The median confinement was 4 months, shorter than the 6 months for all Army cases in 2024. Among those sentences, a quarter were 9 months or longer.
These are adjudged sentences. They were set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.
Discharges After a Conviction
A punitive discharge followed 62% of enlisted convictions: 7 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. The Army-wide share was 72%.
A punitive discharge is the most serious form of separation a court-martial can order for an enlisted member. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not track.
A Wide Spread of Charges
All 15 records list the charges, and no single article dominated. Domestic violence under Article 128b was the most common, in 3 cases (20%), compared with 23% across the Army. Every other article in the table appeared in 2 cases (13%).
Several of those were more common here than Army-wide. Obstructing justice under Article 131b appeared in 13% of cases, compared with 6%. Communicating threats under Article 115 appeared in 13%, compared with 4%. Military property offenses under Article 108 appeared in 13%, compared with 1%.
Others were less common. Assault under Article 128 and the general article, Article 134, each appeared in 13% of cases. Their Army-wide shares were 23% and 21%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the whole Army docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 3 | 20% | 23% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 2 | 13% | 15% |
| Art. 131b Obstructing justice | 2 | 13% | 6% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 2 | 13% | 23% |
| Art. 134 General article | 2 | 13% | 21% |
| Art. 115 Communicating threats | 2 | 13% | 4% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 2 | 13% | 12% |
| Art. 108 Military property; loss, damage, destruction | 2 | 13% | 1% |
Pleas and Who Decided Guilt
The accused pleaded guilty in 11 cases and contested 4. A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 27%, the same as the 27% in the rest of the Army. All 11 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement.
Of the 4 contested cases that reached a verdict, 2 ended in a full acquittal. A military judge alone decided 12 cases, and enlisted panels heard 3. Members heard 20% of cases, compared with 15% across the Army.
Fort Benning in 2023 and 2024
The case count went from 21 in 2023 to 15 in 2024. The contested share went from 19% to 27%. Convictions with confinement went from 81% to 100%. The median confinement went from 5 months to 4 months.
Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 70% to 62%. The general court-martial share went from 71% to 87%. Full acquittals in contested cases went from 0 of 4 to 2 of 4. Small groups can change a lot with a few cases, so these figures show direction, not precise size.
| 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 21 | 15 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 19% | 27% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 0 of 4 | 2 of 4 |
| Convictions with confinement | 81% | 100% |
| Median confinement | 5 months | 4 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 70% | 62% |
| General courts-martial | 71% | 87% |
Kaiserslautern and Fort Campbell
Kaiserslautern (Europe) tried 25 cases and Fort Campbell tried 27 in 2024. Both had longer median confinement than Fort Benning: 9 months and 8 months. Both had higher punitive discharge shares for enlisted members: 87% and 91%.
Contested shares were 24% at Kaiserslautern and 15% at Fort Campbell. Full acquittals came in 1 of 6 contested cases at Kaiserslautern and 2 of 4 at Fort Campbell.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Benning | 15 | 27% | 2 of 4 | 4 months | 62% |
| Kaiserslautern (Europe) | 25 | 24% | 1 of 6 | 9 months | 87% |
| Fort Campbell | 27 | 15% | 2 of 4 | 8 months | 91% |
Rule Changes and Missing Details
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters.
Both rules turn on the offense date. The records give only trial dates, so 2024 trials mix old-rule and new-rule cases. The records also do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they do not show nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Benning with a trial date in 2024 (15 cases).
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Fort Benning: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2023 (previous / next)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2025 (previous / next)
- Inside 37 Courts-Martial at Fort Benning, 2024–2026 (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Camp Humphreys: 2024
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Camp Humphreys: 2025
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2022
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Benning, 2024
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.