How Much Confinement for an Article 112a Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps?

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Based on 765 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Convictions Included Short Confinement

Of the 765 convictions, 685 sentences included confinement and only 80 did not. That no-confinement share of 10% was much lower than the 18% across all Navy and Marine Corps convictions in the same years.

Most terms were short. The most common sentence was under 6 months of confinement: 348 convictions (45%), compared with 35% for the service. Another 208 carried 6 months to 1 year. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 10 months or longer.

Every figure here is an adjudged sentence: what the court imposed at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case, not only the drug finding.

Few Terms Were Longer Than 1 Year

Only 129 of the 765 convictions included more than one year of confinement. Of those, 112 were between one and five years and 17 were 5 years or more. Terms of 5 years or more made up 2% of convictions here, compared with 7% across the service.

The court level sets a limit. A special court-martial cannot adjudge more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. Special courts-martial handled 570 of these cases, with a median confinement of 4 months. The 195 general courts-martial had a median of 1.3 years.

Most Convictions Followed a Guilty Plea

Of the 765 records, 510 list a plea. Of those, 442 accused pleaded guilty and 68 entered a not-guilty or mixed plea, which makes the case contested. That contested share of 13% was much lower than the 24% for all Navy and Marine Corps convictions.

Contested cases were more common at the higher court level: 22% at general courts-martial and 11% at special courts-martial. This group holds convictions only, so every contested case ended with at least one guilty finding. In 22 of the 68, the accused was also found not guilty of at least one charge or specification.

Most Enlisted Members Received a Punitive Discharge

Of 741 convicted enlisted members, 493 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (67%). Most were bad-conduct discharges, and 75 were dishonorable. Both are punitive discharges.

The group also includes 11 convicted officers or warrant officers. Of those, 4 were sentenced to dismissal, the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these trial records do not track.

Most of the Accused Were Junior Enlisted

Among the accused with rank recorded, 604 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 137 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 11 were officers or warrant officers. The accused here were more junior than across all Navy and Marine Corps convictions, where 65% were junior enlisted.

General courts-martial accounted for 195 cases (25%), compared with 41% across the service. Drug cases here were tried at the lower court level more often.

Many Cases Included Other Charges

In 317 of the 765 cases, Article 112a was the only article charged. The other cases included other charges. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 134 cases, Article 81 (conspiracy) in 119, Article 86 (AWOL) in 76, Article 107 (false official statement) in 57, and Article 128 (assault) in 56.

A sentence covers the whole case. The confinement and discharge figures above therefore include the sentences for these other charges.

Fewer Cases in Later Years

There were 139 convictions in 2017, 118 in 2018, 117 in 2019, 110 in 2020, and 102 in 2021. There were 69 in 2022, and between 29 and 45 a year from 2023 through 2025. The records do not show the reason for the decrease.

Five installations accounted for 65% of the cases: Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (132), Camp Pendleton, California (123), Bremerton, Washington (94), San Diego, California (75), and Norfolk, Virginia (72). Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so these counts say little about any one base.

Rule Changes During These Years

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It brought fixed panel sizes, judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. Judges also set sentences within new parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. Those rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give.

What the Records Do Not Show

Trial records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not include the evidence, the plea terms, or drug cases handled through nonjudicial punishment or separation. Records before December 2020 often lack the plea, so plea counts use only the records that list one.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 112a on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Federal Law Has No Crime of Drug Use: How Article 112a Cases Compare · Drug Distribution and Importation: Federal vs. Court-Martial Sentences, 2016–2025

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.