Inside 76 Courts-Martial at Fort Carson, 2020–2023
Fort Carson tried 76 courts-martial from December 2020 to December 2023. Of convicted enlisted members, 89% received a punitive discharge, compared with 73% Army-wide. Contested cases ended in a full acquittal less often than in the rest of the Army: 6 of 22 (27%), compared with 37%.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 7 min read
Trends › By Installation › Fort Carson › 2020–2023
Short answer: Fort Carson tried 76 courts-martial from December 2020 to December 2023. Of convicted enlisted members, 89% received a punitive discharge, compared with 73% Army-wide. Contested cases ended in a full acquittal less often than in the rest of the Army: 6 of 22 (27%), compared with 37%.
Discharges Followed Most Convictions
A punitive discharge for an enlisted member is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. At Fort Carson, 89% of convicted enlisted members received one: 39 bad-conduct and 20 dishonorable discharges. In the rest of the Army, the share was 73%.
The records list 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not cover.
Mostly General Courts-Martial
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. Fort Carson held 62 general and 12 special courts-martial, and the court level is not listed for 2 cases. The general share was 84%, compared with 75% across the Army.
The 2 levels differed in sentences and in how often cases were contested. General courts-martial had a median confinement of 10 months and a contested share of 34%. Special courts-martial had a median of 2 months and a contested share of 8%.
More Sentences of 5 Years or More
Of 76 cases, 67 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 61 of those sentences included confinement (91%). The median was 7 months, slightly longer than the 6 months in all Army cases. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 4 years or longer.
Sentences of 5 years or more made up 16% of convictions here, compared with 8% Army-wide. Sentences longer than one year were imposed in 22 of 67 convictions (33%), compared with 27%. Sentences with no confinement were less common: 9% compared with 17%. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, Army-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 6 | 9% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 27 | 40% | 39% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 12 | 18% | 17% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 11 | 16% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 11 | 16% | 8% |
Pleas, Verdicts, and Partial Acquittals
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. At Fort Carson, 54 accused pleaded guilty and 22 contested at least one charge, a contested share of 29%, compared with 35% Army-wide. Of the 54 guilty pleas, 51 are recorded with a plea agreement and 3 have no entry. Army records do not give the terms.
Of 22 contested cases that reached a verdict, 6 ended in a full acquittal and 10 more ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, which is why partial acquittals show up often.
Which Charges Appeared More Often?
Charge shares use the 71 cases whose records list charges. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) was charged in 13% of cases here, compared with 8% Army-wide. Article 112a (drug offenses) was charged in 15%, compared with 11%. Article 128b (domestic violence) was charged in 17%, compared with 13%.
Article 128 (assault) was charged less often, in 24% compared with 31%. So was Article 92 (orders violations), in 10% compared with 15%. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged in 25%, the same as the Army.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Army as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 18 | 25% | 25% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 17 | 24% | 31% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 12 | 17% | 13% |
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 17% | 22% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 15% | 11% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 9 | 13% | 8% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 7 | 10% | 15% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 6 | 8% | 8% |
Conviction and Confinement by Charge
Article 120 cases ended in a conviction on that article in 13 of 18 cases (72%), and those convictions carried a median confinement of 4 years. Article 128 (assault) cases ended in a conviction on that article in 14 of 17 (82%), with a median of 9 months. Article 128b cases did so in 10 of 12 (83%), with a median of 10 months. Article 134 cases did so in 9 of 12, with a median of 2 years.
Guilty plea rates differed by charge. Cases charging Article 134 ended in a guilty plea 67% of the time (8 of 12), while cases charging Article 120 did so 28% of the time (5 of 18). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 18 | 13 (72%) | 4 years |
| Art. 128 Assault | 17 | 14 (82%) | 9 months |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 12 | 10 (83%) | 10 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 9 (75%) | 2 years |
Judge or Members?
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A judge alone heard 61 cases, enlisted panels 11, and officer panels 3, so members heard 19% of cases, close to the 21% Army-wide. Among contested cases, members heard 14 of 21 (67%).
Who Was Accused
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 63% of the accused, NCOs 36%, and officers 1%. Across all Army cases in those years, junior enlisted members were 57%.
Wheeler Army Airfield and Fort Drum
Wheeler Army Airfield (75 cases) and Fort Drum (72) tried a similar number of cases. Both had higher contested shares than Fort Carson: 46% and 43%. Both also had more full acquittals: 12 of 33 and 12 of 28 contested cases that reached a verdict. The median confinement was about the same at all 3: 7 months here, 8 months at Wheeler, and 6 months at Fort Drum.
The largest difference was in punitive discharges. Fort Carson's enlisted punitive discharge share was 89%, compared with 69% at Wheeler Army Airfield and 63% at Fort Drum.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Carson | 76 | 29% | 6 of 22 | 7 months | 89% |
| Wheeler Army Airfield | 75 | 46% | 12 of 33 | 8 months | 69% |
| Fort Drum | 72 | 43% | 12 of 28 | 6 months | 63% |
Timing and Gaps
The records show 3 cases in 2020, 30 in 2021, 23 in 2022, and 20 in 2023, 5% of the 1,581 Army courts-martial in those years. Army data is thin for 2020. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not show the evidence, plea terms, nonjudicial punishment, or administrative separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Fort Carson with a trial date in 2020–2023 (76 cases), compared with all 1,581 Army trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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 Carson: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Fort Carson, 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 45 Cases (another period)
- Wheeler Army Airfield, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 75 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Fort Drum, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 72 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Camp Humphreys, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 69 Cases
- Fort Bliss, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 102 Cases
- Fort Bragg Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 143 Cases Show
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Carson, 2020–2023
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.