Fort Hood vs. Fort Bragg: Two Army Installations Side by Side, 2020–2023
Fort Hood had 147 courts-martial from 2020–2023, and Fort Bragg had 143. At Fort Hood, 34% of contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (22 of 65), compared with 22% at Fort Bragg, and the median confinement was 8 months, compared with 6 months at Fort Bragg.
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Short answer: Fort Hood had 147 courts-martial from 2020–2023, and Fort Bragg had 143. At Fort Hood, 34% of contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (22 of 65), compared with 22% at Fort Bragg, and the median confinement was 8 months, compared with 6 months at Fort Bragg.
Contested Cases at Fort Hood
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. 65 contested cases at Fort Hood reached a verdict. 22 ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge. That rate, 34%, is higher than the 22% at Fort Bragg, where 11 of 50 contested cases ended that way.
23 more Fort Hood cases split the charges. In a partial acquittal, the accused is 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 in Army records.
Members and Military Judges in Contested Cases
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. At Fort Hood, a military judge alone decided 111 of 147 cases (76%). Members heard 36: 31 enlisted panels and 5 officer panels.
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). Contested cases decided by a judge alone ended in a full acquittal 19% of the time (6 of 31). The records cannot show whether the cases that went to each forum were alike.
Pleas and Plea Agreements
145 of the 147 Fort Hood records list the plea: 79 guilty pleas and 66 contested cases. The contested share was 46%, higher than the 40% at Fort Bragg.
67 of the 79 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 12 have no entry. Army records say whether an agreement existed, not what it said.
Cases charging Article 134 (the general article) ended in a guilty plea 64% of the time (14 of 22), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) ended in a guilty plea 24% of the time (12 of 49). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested.
Sentences After a Conviction
120 Fort Hood cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 93 of those sentences included confinement (78%). The median confinement was 8 months, longer than the 6 months at Fort Bragg. 1 sentence was life.
35 of the 120 convictions carried more than one year (29%), against 25% at Fort Bragg. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement; a special court-martial is capped at one year. The share at 5 years or more was 8% at both installations.
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, the Fort Bragg cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 27 | 22% | 19% |
| Under 6 months | 43 | 36% | 34% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 15 | 12% | 22% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 26 | 22% | 17% |
| 5 years or more | 9 | 8% | 8% |
Sexual Assault Was the Most Common Charge
139 of the 147 cases have a charge list, and one case can fall under several articles.
Article 120 was charged in 35% of Fort Hood cases, against 29% at Fort Bragg. Article 121 (larceny) was charged in 9%, against 3%.
Article 134 and Article 128 (assault) were less common at Fort Hood. Article 134 appeared in 16% of cases, against 29% at Fort Bragg. Article 128 appeared in 24%, against 33%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Fort Bragg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 49 | 35% | 29% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 34 | 24% | 33% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 22 | 16% | 21% |
| Art. 134 General article | 22 | 16% | 29% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 17 | 12% | 19% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 14 | 10% | 6% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 13 | 9% | 3% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 13 | 9% | 12% |
Conviction on the Top Charges
Article 128 most often ended in a conviction on that article: 27 of 34 cases (79%), with a median confinement of 9 months. Article 120 least often did: 30 of 49 cases (61%). Those Article 120 convictions carried a median confinement of 2 years.
Article 134 ended in a conviction in 15 of 22 cases (68%), with a median of 10 months. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) ended in a conviction in 14 of 22 (64%), with a median of 7 months. A conviction on one article and an acquittal on another can happen in the same case, so these rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 49 | 30 (61%) | 2 years |
| Art. 128 Assault | 34 | 27 (79%) | 9 months |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 22 | 14 (64%) | 7 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 22 | 15 (68%) | 10 months |
Punitive Discharges
91 of 111 convicted enlisted members at Fort Hood received a punitive discharge: 61 bad-conduct discharges and 30 dishonorable discharges. The share was 82%, against 78% at Fort Bragg.
9 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Fort Hood records, and 5 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Court Level and Rank
Fort Hood held 108 general courts-martial and 39 special courts-martial. The general share was 73%, lower than the 83% at Fort Bragg. General courts-martial had a median confinement of 1 year, and 54% were contested. Special courts-martial had a median of 2 months, and 21% were contested.
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 63% of the accused at Fort Hood, NCOs 31%, and officers 7%. At Fort Bragg, junior enlisted members were 57%.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Hood | 147 | 46% | 22 of 65 | 8 months | 82% |
| Fort Bragg | 143 | 40% | 11 of 50 | 6 months | 78% |
Years and Record Limits
The records run from June 2020 through December 2023. By year: 2020: 5, 2021: 45, 2022: 53, 2023: 44. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.
The records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, the offense dates, or conduct handled outside a court-martial.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Hood (147) and Fort Bragg (143) with trial dates in 2020–2023. Each figure for Fort Hood is set beside the same figure for Fort Bragg.
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 Hood: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Fort Bragg: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Camp Humphreys and Fort Riley, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Comparing Fort Hood and Fort Campbell: Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Comparing Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Benning: Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Comparing Fort Polk and Fort Knox: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Riley and Fort Benning: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Sill and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Stewart and Kaiserslautern (Europe): Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Hood, 2020–2023
- Lanny Acosta Jr.
- Thomas Calhoun-Lopez
- Matthew S. Fitzgerald
- Michael C. Friess
- Steven B. Fuller
- Jeffrey W. Hart
- Timothy P. Hayes Jr.
- Tyler J. Heimann
- Scott Z. Hughes
- Adam S. Kazin
- Maureen A. Kohn
- Joseph T. Marcee
- Scott D. Meaders
- Tiffany D. Pond
- Javier E. Rivera Rosario
- Joseph K. Venghaus
- Douglas K. Watkins
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.