A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Stewart: 2025

Trends › By Installation › Fort Stewart › 2025

Based on 20 cases · 2025 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

A Punitive Discharge in Every Enlisted Conviction

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for enlisted members. All 19 convicted enlisted members received one, and 6 of those were dishonorable discharges. Across the Army, the share was 73%.

No officers or warrant officers appear in these records. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Guilty Pleas in 19 of 20 Cases

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. In 2025, 19 accused pleaded guilty and 1 contested. Of the 19 guilty pleas, 18 are recorded with a plea agreement and 1 has no entry. Army records note whether an agreement existed but not what it said.

The 1 contested case reached a verdict and did not end in a full acquittal.

Confinement in Most Sentences

Of 19 cases that ended in a conviction on at least one charge, 17 sentences included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 6 months, lower than the 8 months across the Army. Among sentences that included confinement, a quarter were 2.2 years or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.

A Spread of Charges

Of the 20 records, 19 list the charges. Each article counts once per case, so one case can be counted under several articles. Domestic violence under Article 128b was the most common charge, in 4 cases (21%), compared with 26% across the Army.

Several articles appeared in 3 cases each (16%). Article 112a (drug offenses) was more common than across the Army, at 16% compared with 3%, and so was Article 81 (conspiracy), at 16% compared with 2%. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) and Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) each appeared in 16%, compared with 8%. Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 11%, compared with 6%.

Rank and Court Level

Of the accused, 13 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4) and 7 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9). That mix is more junior than across the Army, where 50% were junior enlisted.

General courts-martial made up 14 cases (70%), compared with 66% across the Army. The other 6 were special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Who Decided Guilt?

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. A military judge alone decided 19 cases. Members heard 1 case, with an enlisted panel.

Fort Drum and Vilseck

Fort Drum (20 cases) and Vilseck (Europe) (25 cases) tried a similar number of Army cases in 2025. The contested share was 15% at Fort Drum and 32% at Vilseck. The median confinement was 5 months at Fort Drum and 10 months at Vilseck. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members were 94% and 87%.

New Rules and Trial Dates

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on the offense date, which these records do not give.

The records also leave out cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action, and they do not describe the evidence or the 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.