> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Guilty to Conduct Unbecoming - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-133-plea-2017-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-28T06:33:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T05:13:55.000Z - Description: The records show 20 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 in which the accused pleaded guilty and the charges included Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer). - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 133, Navy-Marine Corps [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 133](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-133-courts-martial/) › When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Gui **Short answer:** The records show 20 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2017–2025 in which the accused pleaded guilty and the charges included Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer). Of 20 convictions, 12 included no confinement (60%), compared with 15% of all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. The 8 confinement sentences had a median of 10 months, compared with 6 months. Based on 20 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Every Accused Was an Officer This post covers only guilty pleas in which Article 133 was among the charges. Officers made up 100% of the accused. Junior enlisted members and NCOs each made up 0%. Across all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas, junior enlisted members made up 65% of the accused. This difference affects every comparison below. The comparison group is mostly enlisted, and this group is entirely officers. Officers face different punishments. For an officer, dismissal takes the place of a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. ## Most Sentences Included No Confinement Of the 20 convictions, 8 included confinement (40%) and 12 did not. The no-confinement share was 60%, much higher than the 15% across Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. When confinement was imposed, it was longer than in other guilty pleas. The median confinement was 10 months, compared with 6 months for guilty pleas generally. A quarter of those sentences were 8 years or longer. 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. ## Few Sentences in the Middle Range Sentences under 6 months made up 10% of these convictions, compared with 40% across guilty pleas. Sentences from 6 months to 1 year made up 20%, compared with 24%. No conviction had a sentence between 1 and 5 years. That range made up 16% of guilty pleas service-wide. Sentences of 5 years or more made up 2 convictions (10%), compared with 5% across guilty pleas. Confinement longer than one year was less common overall: 2 of 20 convictions (10%), compared with 21%. With only 20 cases, a single sentence changes these shares considerably. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | No confinement | 12 | 60% | 15% | | Under 6 months | 2 | 10% | 40% | | 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 20% | 24% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 0 | 0% | 16% | | 5 years or more | 2 | 10% | 5% | ## More General Courts-Martial Than Service-Wide Of the 20 cases, 12 were general courts-martial and 8 were special courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 60%, compared with 37% across all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. The court level limits the possible sentence. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dismissal. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year. ## Other Charges in the Same Cases Article 133 was the only charge in 4 of the 20 cases. The most common other charges were Article 134 (the general article) in 5 cases, Article 92 (orders violation) in 4, Article 80 (attempt) in 3, Article 128 (assault) in 3, and Article 82 (solicitation) in 2. A sentence covers every charge, so the longest sentences here reflect all the guilty findings in those cases. The records do not divide a sentence by article. They cannot show how much of any sentence came from the conduct unbecoming charge. ## Case Counts and Installations The cases were tried from June 2017 to November 2025\. There were never more than 4 in a year: 2 in 2017, 2 in 2018, 3 in 2019, 1 in 2020, 4 in 2021, 1 in 2022, 2 in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 2 in 2025. Norfolk, Virginia had 5 cases. Camp Pendleton, California had 3, San Diego, California 2, and Okinawa, Japan and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii 1 each. Those five installations account for 60% of the 20 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind. ## Law Changes During the Period The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019\. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial limited to six months with no punitive discharge, and brought in written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. These later rules depend on the offense date, which the records do not include. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under both the old and new rules. The records cannot show whether any change affected these pleas. ## What the Records Do Not Show Only cases tried by court-martial are counted. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so earlier guilty pleas without a recorded plea are not in this group. The records also do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative action against officers. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial tried 2017–2025: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 133 (conduct unbecoming) (20 cases), compared with all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Article 133 (Conduct Unbecoming an Officer): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-133-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub) - [Navy-Marine Corps Article 133 Cases by the Numbers, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-133-trend-2017-2025/) - [How Much Confinement for an Article 133 Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-133-sent-2017-2025/) - [Fighting a Navy-Marine Corps Conduct Unbecoming Charge: How Contested Cases Ended](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-133-acq-2017-2025/) - [Pleading Guilty to Article 133 in the Army: What Sentences Followed?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-133-plea-2021-2025/) (another service) - [Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps AWOL Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-86-plea-2017-2025/) - [Guilty Pleas in Navy-Marine Corps Assault Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-128-plea-2017-2025/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.