Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay in 2024: 25 Courts-Martial, Year in Review
Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 25 courts-martial in 2024. Of convicted enlisted members, 78% received a punitive discharge, compared with 58% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Larceny under Article 121 appeared in 20% of cases, compared with 8% service-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay › 2024
Short answer: Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 25 courts-martial in 2024. Of convicted enlisted members, 78% received a punitive discharge, compared with 58% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Larceny under Article 121 appeared in 20% of cases, compared with 8% service-wide.
Punitive Discharges Were More Common Than Elsewhere
The largest difference from the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps in 2024 was in punitive discharges. Of 23 convicted enlisted members, 18 received a punitive discharge: 13 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. That rate, 78%, compares with 58% across the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.
For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. For officers, the equivalent is dismissal. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer here was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Larceny, Conspiracy, and Attempts
All 25 records list the charges. Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 5 cases, or 20%, compared with 8% in all Navy and Marine Corps cases that year. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) also appeared in 20%, compared with 16%.
Conspiracy, attempt, and solicitation charges were more common than the service rates. Article 81 (conspiracy) appeared in 4 cases, 16% compared with 3%. Article 80 (attempts) appeared in 4 cases, 16% compared with 7%. Article 82 (soliciting) appeared in 2 cases, 8% compared with 2%.
Other charges were about the same as the service rates. Article 134, the general article, appeared in 20% of cases, compared with 22%. Article 112a drug offenses appeared in 12%, compared with 14%. Article 128b (domestic violence) appeared in 12%, compared with 13%. A case charging several articles counts once under each.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 5 | 20% | 22% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 5 | 20% | 16% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 5 | 20% | 8% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 4 | 16% | 7% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 4 | 16% | 3% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 3 | 12% | 13% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 3 | 12% | 14% |
| Art. 82 Soliciting | 2 | 8% | 2% |
Most Accused Pleaded Guilty
Of the 23 records that list a plea, 18 were guilty pleas and 5 were not-guilty or mixed pleas. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share here was 22%, lower than the 34% for the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole.
None of the 5 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. All 25 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge.
Confinement After Conviction
Of 25 convictions, 18 included confinement (72%). The median confinement was 5 months, the same as the 5-month median across the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 1.5 years or longer.
By sentence band, 7 convictions (28%) included no confinement, compared with 25% service-wide. Another 10 (40%) were under 6 months. Sentences longer than one year were 6 of 25 convictions (24%), about the same as the 22% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Only 2 were 5 years or more.
These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in a case. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the whole Navy and Marine Corps docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 7 | 28% | 25% |
| Under 6 months | 10 | 40% | 38% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 2 | 8% | 15% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 4 | 16% | 15% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 8% | 7% |
Court Level and Rank
Most cases were special courts-martial. Only 9 of 25 cases were general courts-martial (36%), about the same as the 38% elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence.
Most of the accused were junior enlisted: 18 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 5 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 officer or warrant officer. Across the whole Navy and Marine Corps, 58% of the accused were junior enlisted, so this group was more junior.
Compared With Norfolk and Camp Lejeune
Norfolk, Virginia (24 cases) and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (44 cases) had a comparable number of Navy and Marine Corps cases. The contested shares were similar: 22% here, 26% at Norfolk, and 21% at Camp Lejeune.
Results differed more. At Norfolk, 4 of 6 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. At Camp Lejeune, 2 of 9 did. Here, 0 of 5 did. The punitive discharge rate here, 78%, was the highest of the 3, compared with 70% at Camp Lejeune and 47% at Norfolk. The median confinement at Camp Lejeune was 1 year, longer than the 5 months here and 4 months at Norfolk.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay | 25 | 22% | 0 of 5 | 5 months | 78% |
| Norfolk, Virginia | 24 | 26% | 4 of 6 | 4 months | 47% |
| Camp Lejeune, North Carolina | 44 | 21% | 2 of 9 | 1 year | 70% |
Law Changes in This Period
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 in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. For that reason, 2024 trials include cases under both sets of rules.
What the Data Does Not Cover
Only cases that reached a courtroom appear here. Misconduct resolved through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action is not included. The records also do not describe the evidence or the terms of any plea agreement.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay with a trial date in 2024 (25 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
- Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay in 2022: 16 Courts-Martial, Year in Review (previous / next)
- What Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay Tried in 2025 (previous / next)
- What Was Tried at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, 2024–2026? 53 Courts-Martial (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay, 2024
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.