What Happens to Navy-Marine Corps Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4) Facing Sexual Assault Charges?

Trends › By Offense › Article 120 › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 256 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Acquittals in Contested Cases

Of 104 contested cases that reached a verdict, 53 ended in a full acquittal (51%). Another 13 ended in a partial acquittal (12%), where the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but convicted of another. The full-acquittal rate was slightly lower than the 54% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases.

The records show these outcomes but not the evidence. They cannot show why one case ended in an acquittal and another in a conviction.

Pleas Where Recorded

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, and 179 of 256 records list one. Of those, 104 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 75 were guilty pleas. That is a contested share of 58%. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases, 67% were contested.

The records do not show which charges a guilty plea covered or whether a plea agreement capped the sentence.

Most Convictions Included Years of Confinement

Of the 256 cases, 201 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 187 of those sentences included confinement (93%). The median confinement was 2 years, lower than the 2.2 years for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases. A quarter of those terms were 5 years or longer.

Confinement of more than one year was adjudged in 131 of 201 convictions (65%), compared with 62% across the wider group. The share with 5 years or more was 24%, compared with 27%. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. They cover every charge in the case.

More Dishonorable Discharges Than Bad-Conduct Discharges

A punitive discharge was part of the sentence in 88% of enlisted convictions, compared with 84% across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases. The records show 124 dishonorable discharges and 53 bad-conduct discharges. A dishonorable discharge is the more severe punitive discharge. Only a general court-martial can adjudge one, and general courts-martial handled 221 of these cases. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Nearly All Cases Were General Courts-Martial

General courts-martial made up 86% of these cases (221 of 256). A general court-martial can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. Special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year, handled 35.

At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 3 years, and 64% of cases were contested. At special courts-martial, the median was 6 months, and 27% were contested.

Other Charges in These Cases

Article 120 was the only charge in 47 of the 256 cases, compared with 72 of 480 across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 169 cases, Article 120b (child sexual abuse) in 36, Article 80 (attempt) in 35, Article 134 (general article) in 33, and Article 92 (orders violation) in 24.

Rank, Years, and Installations

All 256 accused were junior enlisted. The group is more junior than the Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases as a whole.

Trials took place from January 2017 through October 2025. The highest count was in 2021. There were 46 cases in 2017, 33 in 2018, 29 in 2019, 33 in 2020, 50 in 2021, 20 in 2022, 19 in 2023, 17 in 2024, and 9 in 2025. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had 37 cases; Norfolk, Virginia, 31; Okinawa, Japan, 29; Camp Pendleton, California, 27; and San Diego, California, 24. Together they account for 58% of the 256. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

A Law Rewritten More Than Once

Article 120 was rewritten in 2012 and amended again for offenses on or after January 1, 2019. Each case is charged under the version in force when the offense happened. The Military Justice Act of 2016 also took effect on January 1, 2019. It brought fixed panel sizes and written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses, and Article 120 is one of them. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under both old and new rules. The records cannot show whether these changes affected any figure here.

All of these rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. The records also do not include cases handled outside a court-martial, the evidence, or plea terms.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 120 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 Courts-Martial

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.