How Often Are Contested Navy-Marine Corps Article 129 Cases Acquitted?

Trends › By Offense › Article 129 › How Often Are Contested Navy-Marine Corp

Based on 22 cases · 2021–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

1 Full Acquittal in 22 Cases

Article 129 covers burglary and unlawful entry. Between March 2021 and December 2025, the Navy and Marine Corps records show 22 courts-martial in which the accused contested a charge under it. A contested case is one with a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. There were 0 guilty pleas in this group.

Only 1 of the 22 cases ended in a full acquittal. That is a 5% full-acquittal rate, lower than the 25% for all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases in the same years. Another 8 cases were partial acquittals: not guilty of at least one charge or specification, but guilty of another. A partial acquittal still includes a conviction, so those 8 cases are among the 21 convictions below.

Median Confinement Was Longer Than in Other Contested Cases

Of 21 cases that ended in a conviction, 14 sentences included confinement (67%). The median confinement was 10 months, compared with 6 months for contested Navy and Marine Corps cases.

Confinement longer than one year was imposed in 6 of 21 convictions (29%), compared with 23% in the comparison group. Sentences of 5 years or more made up 2 convictions (10%), compared with 6%. Sentences between 6 months and 1 year made up 5 convictions (24%), compared with 14%. No confinement was imposed in 7 convictions (33%), about the same as the 34% for contested cases. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Punitive Discharges

Of 18 convicted enlisted members, 9 received a punitive discharge: 7 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable discharges. For contested Navy and Marine Corps cases, the share was 51%.

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation. Court-martial records do not show administrative separations.

Other Charges in These Cases

Article 129 was the only charge in 3 of 22 cases. Article 128 (assault) was also charged in 9 cases. Article 120 (sexual assault) and Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 6 each, Article 121 (larceny) in 5, and Article 134 (general article) in 4.

An adjudged sentence covers every charge in the case. The confinement figures therefore describe whole cases. The records cannot separate the sentence for the burglary or unlawful entry charge alone.

Rank and Court Level

Among the accused with a recorded rank, 12 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4) and 7 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9). There were 0 officers or warrant officers. That group was more junior than contested Navy and Marine Corps cases overall, where 55% were junior enlisted.

General courts-martial tried 13 of the 22 cases (59%), compared with 48% in the comparison group. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Where the Cases Were Tried

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried the most of these cases, with 5. Norfolk, Virginia tried 4. Camp Pendleton, California and Okinawa, Japan tried 2 each, and MCAS Miramar, California tried 1. Those five locations account for 64% of the 22 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count does not single out a base.

Most Cases Were Tried in 2021

The yearly count was 9 in 2021, 2 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 4 in 2024, and 4 in 2025. With so few cases each year, the records cannot show a meaningful trend. The records also give trial dates, not offense dates.

This post starts in 2021. Earlier records are not included, so the 9 cases in 2021 cannot be compared with earlier years here. The figures also do not show how often unlawful entry occurred.

Law Changes and the 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 in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not include. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under both the old and new rules.

The records also do not include the evidence, the plea terms, or any case handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.

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.