Fort Hood Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 147 Cases Show

Trends › By Installation › Fort Hood › 2020–2023

Based on 147 cases · 2020–2023 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Many Contested Cases

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 145 records listing a plea, 66 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 79 were guilty pleas, a 46% contested share compared with 35% across the Army. Of the 79 guilty pleas, 67 are recorded with a plea agreement and 12 have no entry. Army records show whether an agreement existed, not its terms.

Of 65 contested cases that reached a verdict, 22 ended in a full acquittal (34%), slightly lower than the 37% across the Army. Another 23 were partial acquittals, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, which makes partial acquittals common.

Sexual Assault Was the Most Common Charge

Charge shares are based on the 139 cases whose records list charges, and a case can count under several articles. Article 120 was charged in 35% of them, compared with 25% across the Army. Article 128 (assault) was less common here, at 24% compared with 31%. So was Article 134 (general article), at 16% compared with 22%.

Guilty plea rates differed by charge. Cases charging Article 134 ended in a guilty plea 64% of the time (14 of 22), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 120 did so 24% of the time (12 of 49). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.

How Each Top Charge Ended

Article 120 led to a conviction on that article in 30 of 49 cases (61%), the lowest share among the top charges. The median confinement for those convictions was 2 years. Article 128 produced a conviction on that article in 27 of 34 cases (79%), with a median of 9 months. Article 92 (orders violation) ended in a conviction in 14 of 22 cases, and Article 134 in 15 of 22.

A case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.

Full Acquittals by Who Decided the Case

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 24% of cases with the forum listed: 31 with enlisted panels and 5 with officer panels. The other 111 were judge-alone trials. Among contested cases, members heard 35 of 66 (53%).

Contested cases decided by members ended in a full acquittal 47% of the time (16 of 34). Those decided by a judge alone did so 19% of the time (6 of 31). The cases in each group differ in charges and evidence, and the records cannot show why the results differed.

Sentences After Conviction

Of the 147 cases, 120 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 93 of those sentences included confinement (78%). The median was 8 months. A quarter were 1.8 years or longer, and 1 was a life sentence.

Sentences of more than one year were imposed in 35 of 120 convictions (29%), compared with 27% across the Army. No confinement was imposed in 22% of convictions, compared with 17%. Sentences of more than 1 year but under 5 years made up 22%, compared with 19%. The median confinement was 1 year at the 108 general courts-martial and 2 months at the 39 special courts-martial. Their contested shares were 54% and 21%. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Discharges and Dismissals

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge for enlisted members, or a dismissal for officers. Among 111 enlisted members convicted, 91 received one (82%), more often than Army-wide (73%). Of those, 30 were dishonorable. Of 9 convicted officers or warrant officers, 5 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Who Was Accused

By rank, the accused were 92 junior enlisted members, 45 NCOs, and 10 officers, a group more junior than the Army as a whole. Of the 147 cases, 108 were general courts-martial (73%), compared with 74% Army-wide. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Compared With Fort Bragg and Lewis-McChord

Fort Bragg and Joint Base Lewis-McChord tried a similar number of cases in the same years. At Fort Bragg, 40% of cases were contested, and 11 of 50 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. At Joint Base Lewis-McChord, 30% were contested, and 17 of 41 ended in a full acquittal. Both had a 6-month median confinement, compared with 8 months at Fort Hood. Their enlisted punitive discharge shares were 78% and 74%, compared with 82% at Fort Hood.

Dates, Names, and Gaps

The cases run from June 2020 to December 2023: 5 in 2020, 45 in 2021, 53 in 2022, and 44 in 2023. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, and the services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, so the 2020 count is thin. The 147 cases equal 9% of the 1,581 Army courts-martial in those years. The Army renamed the post Fort Cavazos in 2023 and restored the name Fort Hood in 2025; the records use Fort Hood throughout.

The records cover only what reached a courtroom. They leave out nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases with no action. They also do not describe the evidence or plea terms.

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.