Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay Before and After 2024: How Its Courts-Martial Changed

Trends › By Installation › Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay › Before and after 2024

Based on 53 cases · 2024–2026 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Few Contested Cases Ended in Full Acquittal

A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of the 51 records at Kaneohe Bay that list a plea, 16 were contested and 35 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 31%, compared with 36% across the Navy and Marine Corps.

Only 1 of the 16 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (6%). That is lower than the 26% in the rest of the service. Another 7 ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge but guilty of another. In all, 52 of the 53 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge.

How 2024–2026 Compares With 2019–2023

The earlier period had 78 cases, about 16 a year. The later period had about 20 a year, counting full years only. The contested share rose from 26% to 31%. Full acquittals went from 0 of 11 contested cases that reached a verdict to 1 of 16.

Confinement was less common and shorter in the later period. Convictions with confinement went from 90% to 67%, and the median confinement went from 11 months to 7 months. Punitive discharges were about the same, 68% and 69%. General courts-martial went from 45% of cases to 36%.

In groups this size, a few cases can change a percentage a great deal. The changes show direction, not precision, and the records cannot show why they happened.

Punitive Discharges Were More Common Here

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 49 enlisted members convicted, 34 received one (69%). That is higher than the 52% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Of those 34, 12 were dishonorable discharges.

There were also 2 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 was sentenced to dismissal. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

How Much Confinement?

Of the 52 convictions, 35 included confinement (67%). The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 6 months in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 2 years or longer.

Court level made a large difference. The 19 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 2 years. The 34 special courts-martial had a median of 3 months. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

By sentence band, 33% of convictions included no confinement and 10% included 5 years or more. Elsewhere in the service, those figures were 30% and 7%.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case.

Attempts, Orders, and Domestic Violence

All 53 cases have charge lists. Article 92 orders violations appeared in 25% of cases, compared with 19% across the service. Article 80 attempts appeared in 17%, compared with 7%. Article 128b domestic violence appeared in 17% of cases, compared with 12%. Article 113 drunken or reckless vehicle operation appeared in 8%, compared with 3%.

Each of the 4 most common articles ended in conviction every time it was charged. The sentences differed widely. The median confinement was 3 months for convictions including Article 92, 9 months for Article 128b, 2.5 years for Article 80, and 6 years for Article 134, the general article. Each sentence covers the whole case, not that article alone.

Sentences by Charge

The charge-level figures show how much the sentence depended on the mix of charges. A case is counted under every article it includes, so the same conviction can appear in more than one row.

Who Was Tried

The accused were 34 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 16 NCOs, and 2 officers or warrant officers. That mix is more junior than the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps, where 59% were junior enlisted. General courts-martial made up 36% of cases, compared with 38% service-wide.

Sentences longer than one year were more common than in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps: 13 of 52 convictions (25%), compared with 20%. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement.

Compared With Similar Installations

Bremerton, Washington, and Okinawa, Japan, tried a similar number of cases in the same years, 52 and 50. Of the 3, Kaneohe Bay had the fewest full acquittals. It also had the highest punitive discharge share: 69%, compared with 33% at Bremerton and 56% at Okinawa.

Limits of the Records

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 judge sentences within new parameters. Both rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give, so 2024–2026 trials include both old-rule and new-rule cases.

The records also leave out the evidence, the plea terms, and cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. The 2026 count of 12 covers only part of the year.

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.