Fort Riley in 2021: 18 Courts-Martial, Year in Review
Fort Riley tried 18 courts-martial in 2021. The median confinement was 1 year, compared with 6 months across the Army. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged in 44% of cases, compared with 29% Army-wide, and Article 128 (assault) in 50%, compared with 38%.
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Trends › By Installation › Fort Riley › 2021
Short answer: Fort Riley tried 18 courts-martial in 2021. The median confinement was 1 year, compared with 6 months across the Army. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged in 44% of cases, compared with 29% Army-wide, and Article 128 (assault) in 50%, compared with 38%.
Sexual Assault and Assault Charges
All 18 records list charges, and one case can appear under several articles. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 9 cases (50%), compared with 38% across all Army cases in 2021. Article 120 (sexual assault) appeared in 8 cases (44%), compared with 29%.
Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation), Article 134 (general article), and Article 112a (wrongful use, possession of controlled substances) each appeared in 4 cases (22%). Article 112a was charged in 12% of cases Army-wide.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Army-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 9 | 50% | 38% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 8 | 44% | 29% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 4 | 22% | 16% |
| Art. 134 General article | 4 | 22% | 21% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 22% | 12% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 11% | 12% |
| Art. 131b Obstructing justice | 2 | 11% | 5% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 2 | 11% | 9% |
A Longer Median Confinement
Of the 18 cases, 16 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 13 of those sentences included confinement (81%). The median confinement was 1 year, longer than the 6 months across the Army. A quarter of the sentences that included confinement were 1.7 years or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case.
Punitive Discharges
A punitive discharge for an enlisted member is a bad-conduct or a dishonorable discharge. At Fort Riley, 69% of enlisted convictions led to one: 7 bad-conduct and 4 dishonorable. That is about the same as the 70% across the Army. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Pleas and Verdicts
In 13 cases the accused pleaded guilty, and 5 were contested, meaning a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share, 28%, is lower than the 36% in the Army as a whole. Of the 13 guilty pleas, 12 are recorded with a plea agreement and 1 has no entry.
Of the 5 contested cases that reached a verdict, 2 ended in a full acquittal.
Forum, Rank, and Court Level
A military judge alone decided 16 cases, and enlisted panels heard 2. Members heard 11% of the cases, compared with 22% across the Army.
The accused were 10 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 8 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), with no officers. That mix is similar to the Army as a whole, where 58% were junior enlisted. Of the 18 cases, 14 were general courts-martial (78%), compared with 73% in the rest of the Army. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Camp Humphreys and Fort Bliss
Camp Humphreys tried 23 cases in 2021 and Fort Bliss tried 30. Fort Riley had the longest median confinement of the 3, 1 year, compared with 3 months and 7 months. Its contested share, 28%, was lower than the 52% at Camp Humphreys and the 33% at Fort Bliss.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Riley | 18 | 28% | 2 of 5 | 1 year | 69% |
| Camp Humphreys | 23 | 52% | 7 of 12 | 3 months | 5 of 9 |
| Fort Bliss | 30 | 33% | 3 of 10 | 7 months | 73% |
Limits of the Data
The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records here are sparse before 2021. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they do not show nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Riley with a trial date in 2021 (18 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 Riley: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What Fort Riley Tried in 2023 (previous / next)
- Fort Riley Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 50 Cases Show (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
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2025
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Riley, 2021
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.