Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Conduct Unbecoming Charge: How Contested Cases Ended
Of 21 contested Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 that included an Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer) charge, 1 ended in a full acquittal (5%). The rate for all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases was 31%. Partial acquittals occurred in 8 cases (38%).
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Offense › Article 133 › Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Conduct Unb
Short answer: Of 21 contested Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 that included an Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer) charge, 1 ended in a full acquittal (5%). The rate for all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases was 31%. Partial acquittals occurred in 8 cases (38%). Of the 20 convictions, 60% included no confinement, compared with 34% in contested cases overall.
Officers Who Contested the Charge
This post covers only contested cases in which Article 133 was among the charges. A contested case is one where the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The records list 16 of the accused as officers or warrant officers and 0 as enlisted members. Rank is not listed for the rest. Across all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases, 49% of the accused were junior enlisted members.
This group is therefore different from the comparison group. Every comparison below is between a group of officers and a mostly enlisted group.
1 Full Acquittal and 8 Partial Acquittals
Of 21 contested cases that reached a verdict, only 1 ended in a full acquittal, a 5% rate. Across all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases in the same years, the full-acquittal rate was 31%.
Partial acquittals were common. In 8 cases (38%), the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Article 133 was almost always charged with other offenses, so a partial acquittal could mean a conviction on some charges and an acquittal on others.
Most Convictions Included No Confinement
Of 20 convictions, 12 included no confinement (60%), compared with 34% in contested cases overall. Confinement was part of 40% of the convictions.
When confinement was imposed, the median was 8 months, about the same as the 7 months across contested cases. A quarter of those sentences were 1 year or longer. The records list 1 life sentence. These are adjudged sentences: the sentences announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.
Only 1 Sentence Was Longer Than 1 Year
Confinement longer than one year was imposed in 1 of 20 convictions (5%), compared with 24% in contested cases generally. Sentences between 1 and 5 years made up 0% here, compared with 16%. Sentences of 5 years or more made up 5%, compared with 8%.
Sentences under 6 months made up 15%, compared with 28%. Sentences from 6 months to 1 year made up 20%, compared with 14%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 12 | 60% | 34% |
| Under 6 months | 3 | 15% | 28% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 20% | 14% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 0 | 0% | 16% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 5% | 8% |
Other Charges in These Cases
Only 1 of the 21 cases charged Article 133 alone. Article 134 (the general article) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 6 cases. Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 107 (false official statement) appeared in 5 each, and Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) in 3.
In the partial acquittals, the records do not say which charges ended in a not-guilty finding. The records also do not divide a sentence among charges.
Most Cases Were General Courts-Martial
General courts-martial tried 15 of the 21 cases (71%), compared with 53% across contested Navy and Marine Corps cases. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and dismissal of an officer. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement. The only sentence longer than one year in this group, the life sentence, therefore came from a general court-martial. The data here does not report how many convicted officers were dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.
Case Counts and Law Changes
The cases were tried from September 2017 to November 2025: 1 in 2017, 3 in 2018, 2 in 2019, 2 in 2020, 4 in 2021, 3 in 2022, 1 in 2023, 1 in 2024, and 4 in 2025. With so few cases each year, a single outcome changes every percentage in this post.
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. Among other changes, it set fixed panel sizes and brought in written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. Offenses after December 27, 2023 are sentenced within new sentencing parameters. Both later rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not include.
What the Records Do Not Show
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence. They do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, or other administrative action against officers. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so this group uses only records that list one.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial tried 2017–2025: where the accused contested a charge under Article 133 (conduct unbecoming) (21 cases), compared with all contested Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years.
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
- Article 133 (Conduct Unbecoming an Officer): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Offense (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Article 133 Cases by the Numbers, 2017–2025
- How Much Confinement for an Article 133 Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps?
- When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Guilty to Conduct Unbecoming
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps AWOL Charge: How Contested Cases Ended
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Child Sexual Abuse Charge: How Contested Cases Ended
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Disobeying An Officer Charge: How Contested Cases Ended
- Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Drug Charge: How Contested Cases Ended
- 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.