What Was Tried at Fort Bliss, 2024–2026? 84 Courts-Martial

Trends › By Installation › Fort Bliss › 2024–2026

Based on 84 cases · 2024–2026 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Cases Ended in Guilty Pleas

At Fort Bliss, 74 accused pleaded guilty and 10 entered not-guilty or mixed pleas. A case with a not-guilty or mixed plea to at least one charge is contested. The contested share here was 12%. In the Army as a whole over the same years, it was 21%.

70 of the 74 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 4 have no entry. Army records note whether an agreement existed but not what it said, so this data does not show any sentence limits an agreement set.

Sentences After Conviction

Of the 78 convictions, 76% included confinement and 24% included none. In the rest of the Army, 15% of convictions included no confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6-month median elsewhere in the Army, and a quarter of terms were 3 years or longer.

21 of 78 convictions (27%) included a sentence longer than one year. Across the Army it was 30%. Each figure is an adjudged sentence. It covers every charge in the case and comes before any plea-agreement limit, clemency, or appeal.

Which Charges Were Most Common?

Article 128 assault was the most common charge, in 22% of the 81 cases with charge lists. That was about the same as the 20% in the rest of the Army. Each article is counted once per case.

2 charges were more common here than elsewhere. Article 112a drug offenses were charged in 11% of cases, compared with 5% in the rest of the Army. Article 81 conspiracy was charged in 9%, compared with 2%. 2 charges were less common. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 16%, compared with 21%. Domestic violence under Article 128b was charged in 17% of Fort Bliss cases, compared with 25% elsewhere in the Army.

Conviction and Confinement by Charge

Most cases on the most common charges ended in a conviction on the charged article. 17 of 18 Article 128 assault cases did, with a median confinement of 5 months. All 13 Article 134 cases and all 9 Article 112a cases did, with medians of 9 months and 6 months.

Domestic violence cases had the longest sentences. 12 of 14 Article 128b cases ended in a conviction on that article, and the median confinement for those convictions was 1.7 years. 71% of Article 128b cases ended in a guilty plea (10 of 14), and every Article 134 case did (13 of 13). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested.

How 2024–2026 Differs From 2020–2023

Fort Bliss had 102 cases in 2020–2023, about 26 a year, compared with about 34 a year in the full years since. The contested share fell from 32% to 12%. The share of convictions with confinement fell from 92% to 76%.

Several sentence figures were lower. The median confinement went from 8 months to 6 months. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members went from 80% to 71%. General courts-martial went from 72% of cases to 65%. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict went from 10 of 31 to 3 of 10. A few cases can change these figures, so they show direction, not precise measurements.

General and Special Courts-Martial Compared

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 impose a dishonorable discharge. General courts-martial made up 65% of the 83 Fort Bliss cases with a court level listed (54 of 83). The court level is not listed for 1 case.

The 54 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 1.3 years, and 15% were contested. The 29 special courts-martial had a median of 3 months, and 3% were contested.

Acquittals, Discharges, and the Forum

Of 10 contested cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal (30%), lower than the 40% across the Army. 5 more ended in a partial acquittal: not guilty of at least one charge and guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals appear often.

71% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge: 31 bad-conduct discharges and 24 dishonorable discharges. That compares with 73% across all Army cases. For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed.

The accused usually chooses whether a judge alone or a panel decides guilt. Members heard 12% of cases with a recorded forum: 9 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel. Members heard 9 of 10 contested cases (90%).

Most of the Accused Were Junior Enlisted

Junior enlisted members, E-1 to E-4, made up 70% of the accused. NCOs made up 27%, and officers made up 2%. Across all Army cases, junior enlisted members were 53% of the accused.

Compared With Fort Bragg and Fort Campbell

Among 3 bases with a similar number of cases, Fort Bliss had the shortest median confinement: 6 months, compared with 8 months at Fort Bragg (85 cases) and 1 year at Fort Campbell (87 cases). Its contested share of 12% was also the lowest, compared with 25% at Fort Bragg and 14% at Fort Campbell.

Timing and Limits

Fort Bliss tried 40 cases in 2024, 27 in 2025, and 17 in 2026, a partial year. That is 7% of 1,252 Army courts-martial. Covered-offense and sentencing rules took effect for offenses after December 27, 2023, and they depend on offense dates, which the records do not include. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, the evidence, and plea terms are not in the data.

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.