Naples, Italy, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 21 Cases
Naples, Italy tried 21 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013 to 2018, and 67% of them were contested, compared with 29% service-wide. Sexual assault charges under Article 120 appeared in 47% of cases with listed charges, compared with 22% elsewhere.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Naples, Italy › 2013–2018
Short answer: Naples, Italy tried 21 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013 to 2018, and 67% of them were contested, compared with 29% service-wide. Sexual assault charges under Article 120 appeared in 47% of cases with listed charges, compared with 22% elsewhere. Of 14 contested cases that reached a verdict, 7 ended in a full acquittal.
Most Cases Were Contested
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. At Naples, 14 accused contested the charges and 7 pleaded guilty. The contested share was 67%. Across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years, it was 29%.
That share is higher than at Groton, Connecticut, which tried 26 cases in the same years and had a contested share of 23%. Parris Island, South Carolina, with 20 cases, lists too few pleas for a comparable share.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Naples, Italy | 21 | 67% | 7 of 14 | 7 months | 38% |
| Parris Island, South Carolina | 20 | 0 of 1 | — | 2 years | 63% |
| Groton, Connecticut | 26 | 23% | 2 of 6 | 10 months | 91% |
A 50% Full Acquittal Rate
Of the 14 contested cases that reached a verdict, 7 ended in a full acquittal. The full acquittal rate was 50%. Across Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years, it was 46%.
Only 1 case ended in a partial acquittal, with a not-guilty finding on at least one charge or specification and a guilty finding on another. The records show 13 convictions in all. The records do not show the evidence in any case, so they cannot explain the results.
Sexual Assault and Assault Charges
The charge lists cover 19 of the 21 cases. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 10 of them (53%), compared with 37% service-wide. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in 9 (47%), compared with 22%.
Other articles appeared in only 1 to 3 cases each, at shares about the same as the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole. Larceny under Article 121, the general article under Article 134, and orders violations under Article 92 each appeared in 3. False official statements under Article 107 appeared in 11% of cases, compared with 12% service-wide. A case with several articles appears in several rows.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 10 | 53% | 37% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 9 | 47% | 22% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 3 | 16% | 13% |
| Art. 134 General article | 3 | 16% | 13% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 3 | 16% | 15% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 2 | 11% | 12% |
| Art. 131b Obstruction, numbered since 2019 | 1 | 5% | 4% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 1 | 5% | 7% |
Most of the Accused Were NCOs
Of the accused, 17 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), 4 were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), and 0 were officers or warrant officers. That mix is more senior than the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, where 56% of the accused were junior enlisted.
How Much Confinement?
Of 13 convictions, 8 included confinement. The median confinement was 7 months, a little longer than the 6 months across Navy and Marine Corps cases. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 4.5 years or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, the sentences announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case.
General and Special Courts-Martial
There were 10 general and 11 special courts-martial, a general court-martial share of 48%. General courts-martial had a median confinement of 4.5 years, and 90% of them were contested. Special courts-martial had a median confinement of 4 months, and 45% were contested.
A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year. It can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge.
Fewer Punitive Discharges
Of 13 convicted enlisted members, 5 received a punitive discharge: 2 bad-conduct and 3 dishonorable. That share, 38%, compares with 64% across the Navy and Marine Corps, 63% at Parris Island, and 91% at Groton.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. The median confinement at the comparison installations was 2 years at Parris Island and 10 months at Groton.
Timing and the Old Rules
The cases were tried from June 2013 to December 2018: 3 in 2013, 6 in 2014, 4 in 2015, 4 in 2016, 2 in 2017, and 2 in 2018. No year had more than 6 cases. The cases are 1% of the 2,059 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial in those years.
All of them came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases.
Limits of the Records
Only cases that reached a courtroom appear here. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases with no action are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum, so some counts use only the records that list them.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Naples, Italy with a trial date in 2013–2018 (21 cases), compared with all 2,059 Navy and Marine Corps trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
- Naples, Italy: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- What Was Tried at Naples, Italy, 2019–2022? 15 Courts-Martial (another period)
- Everett, Washington Courts-Martial, 2013–2018: What 18 Cases Show (same years, similar size)
- Lemoore, California, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 16 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Bremerton, Washington Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 52 Cases Show
- Bremerton, Washington, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 221 Cases
- Bremerton, Washington, 2019–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 153 Cases
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Courts-Martial, 2019–2023: What 283 Cases Show
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.