A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Drum: 2023
Fort Drum tried 13 courts-martial in 2023. Every conviction carried confinement, and the median confinement was 1.2 years, compared with 6 months in the rest of the Army. Of 11 convicted enlisted members, 10 received a punitive discharge (91%), compared with 74% Army-wide.
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Trends › By Installation › Fort Drum › 2023
Short answer: Fort Drum tried 13 courts-martial in 2023. Every conviction carried confinement, and the median confinement was 1.2 years, compared with 6 months in the rest of the Army. Of 11 convicted enlisted members, 10 received a punitive discharge (91%), compared with 74% Army-wide.
Longer Confinement Than Army-Wide
Of the 13 cases, 12 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and all 12 sentences included confinement (100%). The median confinement was 1.2 years, longer than the 6 months median across all Army cases in 2023. A quarter of these sentences were 4 years or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.
Punitive Discharges for Nearly All Enlisted Convictions
A punitive discharge for an enlisted member is either a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Of 11 convicted enlisted members, 10 received one: 5 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. That share, 91%, is higher than the 74% across the Army.
The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed, the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Guilty Pleas and Plea Agreements
Of the 13 accused, 10 pleaded guilty and 3 contested at least one charge. A contested case is one with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share, 23%, is lower than the 31% across the Army.
Of the 10 guilty pleas, 9 are recorded with a plea agreement and 1 has no entry. Army records note only whether an agreement existed, not its terms. Of the 3 contested cases that reached a verdict, 1 ended in a full acquittal.
Charges in These Cases
All 13 records list charges, and one case can count under several articles. Article 80 (attempts), Article 120 (sexual assault), and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 3 cases (23%). Article 80 was charged more often here than across the Army, where it appeared in 8% of cases.
Article 128b (domestic violence) and Article 134 (general article) each appeared in 2 cases (15%), lower than the Army shares of 21% and 24%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all Army cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 80 Attempts | 3 | 23% | 8% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 3 | 23% | 21% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 3 | 23% | 26% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 2 | 15% | 21% |
| Art. 134 General article | 2 | 15% | 24% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 1 | 8% | 11% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 1 | 8% | 5% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 1 | 8% | 8% |
Rank, Court Level, and Forum
The accused were 8 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 4 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 officer or warrant officer. Across the Army, 56% of the accused were junior enlisted, so this group was more junior.
There were 12 general courts-martial and 1 special court-martial. The general share, 92%, compares with 76% across the Army. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, while a special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
A military judge alone decided 12 cases, and an enlisted panel heard 1. Members heard 8% of cases, compared with 19% Army-wide.
Fort Carson and Fort Benning
Fort Carson tried 20 cases in 2023 and Fort Benning tried 21. Fort Drum had the longest median confinement of the 3, 1.2 years, compared with 6 months and 5 months. Its contested share, 23%, was lower than the 50% at Fort Carson and higher than the 19% at Fort Benning.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Drum | 13 | 23% | 1 of 3 | 1.2 years | 91% |
| Fort Carson | 20 | 50% | 3 of 10 | 6 months | 94% |
| Fort Benning | 21 | 19% | 0 of 4 | 5 months | 70% |
Limits of the Records
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Drum with a trial date in 2023 (13 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 Drum: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- Fort Drum in 2022: 17 Courts-Martial, Year in Review (previous / next)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Drum: 2025 (previous / next)
- Fort Drum, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 72 Cases (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
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2023
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Drum, 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.