What Fort Bliss Tried in 2021

Trends › By Installation › Fort Bliss › 2021

Based on 30 cases · 2021 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Assault and False Statements Were the Most Common Charges

All 30 records from Fort Bliss in 2021 list the charges. An article is counted once per case, so a case charging both assault and a false statement is counted under each.

Article 128 (assault) was charged in 16 cases, or 53%, compared with 38% in the rest of the Army. Article 107 (false official statement) had a larger difference from its Army share: 27% here compared with 12% elsewhere. Drug charges under Article 112a were in 23% of cases, compared with 12%.

Sexual assault charges under Article 120 were less common than across the Army: 20% compared with 29%. Article 134, the general article, was about the same as the Army rate: 20% compared with 21%.

Which Charges Ended in Convictions?

Of the 8 cases charging a false official statement, 7 ended in a conviction on that article, the highest rate of the most common charges. 13 of 16 assault cases ended in a conviction on Article 128 (81%), the lowest rate of the group.

The median confinement was 7 months for an Article 128 conviction and 8 months for an Article 107 conviction. One case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.

Most of the Accused Were Junior Soldiers

Junior enlisted soldiers in grades E-1 to E-4 made up 80% of the accused, compared with 58% in the rest of the Army. NCOs made up 13%, and officers made up 7%.

General courts-martial made up 63% of cases (19 of 30), and special courts-martial made up the rest. 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 and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge.

Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. At Fort Bliss, 10 cases were contested and 20 ended in guilty pleas. The contested share was 33%. Across the Army as a whole, it was 36%.

Of the 20 guilty pleas, 19 are recorded with a plea agreement, and 1 has no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not its terms.

How Contested Cases Were Decided

Of 10 contested cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal (30%), compared with 35% across the Army. Another 5 ended in a partial acquittal (50%), meaning the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common.

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A judge alone decided 27 of the 30 cases (90%). Panels of members heard 3, all enlisted panels. All 3 were contested cases, so members heard 30% of the 10 contested cases. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the forum figures generally follow the number of contested cases.

Sentences After Conviction

There were 27 convictions, and 23 included confinement. The median confinement was 7 months, about the same as the Army's 6 months. A quarter of sentences were 1.1 years or longer.

Terms longer than one year were less common than across the Army: 6 of 27 convictions (22%), compared with 26%. Terms of 6 months to 1 year were more common: 26% of convictions, compared with 17% across the Army. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement limit, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.

General and Special Courts-Martial

The 19 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 10 months, and 42% were contested. The 11 special courts-martial had a median of 7 months, and only 18% were contested.

Punitive Discharges

Of 26 convicted enlisted members, 19 received a punitive discharge: 13 bad-conduct discharges and 6 dishonorable discharges. That is 73%, compared with 70% for all Army cases. The records include 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.

A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which these records do not track.

Compared With Fort Carson and Wheeler Army Airfield

Fort Carson and Wheeler Army Airfield each tried 30 cases in 2021. Fort Carson had fewer contested cases (20%), and 1 of 6 ended in a full acquittal. Wheeler Army Airfield had more contested cases (47%), and 5 of 13 ended in a full acquittal.

The median confinement was 9 months at Fort Carson and 1.1 years at Wheeler Army Airfield. The punitive discharge rate for convicted enlisted members was 86% at Fort Carson, 55% at Wheeler Army Airfield, and 73% at Fort Bliss.

What the Records Do Not Show

The services had to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021. For this base, 2021 is the earliest full year.

The records list trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe evidence or plea terms. They do not include cases resolved through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.