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

Trends › By Offense › Article 134 › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 368 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Convicted Members Received a Punitive Discharge

Of 362 convicted junior enlisted members, 293 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. That is 81%, higher than the 75% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 134 cases. Of those 293 discharges, 159 were dishonorable.

A punitive discharge is part of the court-martial sentence. Members who did not receive one could still face a later administrative separation. These records do not include administrative separations.

Most Sentences Were Longer Than 1 Year

Confinement was part of 334 of the 362 sentences. The median confinement was 1.5 years, the same as for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 134 cases. A quarter of the sentences were 2.8 years or longer.

Confinement longer than one year was imposed in 202 of 362 convictions (56%), more often than the 52% in the comparison group. Sentences between 1 and 5 years made up 45% of convictions here, compared with 38% overall. No confinement was less common: 8%, compared with 13%.

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. Article 134 was often charged with other offenses.

Other Charges in These Cases

Article 134 was the only charge in 144 of the 368 cases. In other cases, it was charged with Article 128 (assault) in 55 cases, Article 120b (child sexual abuse) in 52, Article 80 (attempt) in 49, Article 92 (orders violation) in 37, and Article 120 (sexual assault) in 33.

The records do not divide a sentence among the charges in a case. The sentence figures above therefore include the punishment for these other charges.

Most Cases Were General Courts-Martial

General courts-martial tried 266 of the 368 cases (72%), and special courts-martial tried 102. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and can impose a bad-conduct discharge.

The median confinement was 2 years at general courts-martial and 4 months at special courts-martial. The contested shares were about the same, at 26% and 25%.

Pleas and Verdicts

Among 293 records that list a plea, 218 were guilty pleas and 75 were contested. A contested case is one with a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The contested share was 26%, about the same as the 28% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 134 cases.

Of the 75 contested cases that reached a verdict, 8% ended in a full acquittal. That is lower than the 12% service-wide. Another 16 were partial acquittals: a not-guilty finding on at least one charge or specification and a conviction on another.

Case Counts by Year

The yearly count changed a great deal. There were 28 cases in 2017, 37 in 2018, 20 in 2019, and 27 in 2020. The highest year was 2021, with 70. There were 45 in 2022, 43 in 2023, 57 in 2024, and 41 in 2025. The records cover January 2017 to December 2025.

Share of All Cases and Installations

Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 134 cases, junior enlisted members made up 59% of the accused. Most of the service's general article cases therefore involved junior enlisted members.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried the most of these cases, with 74. Camp Pendleton, California had 42, San Diego, California 35, Okinawa, Japan 34, and Bremerton, Washington 23. Together those five account for 57% of the 368 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so the counts do not show a problem at any one base.

Law Changes and the Limits of the Records

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records include trial dates but not offense dates, so 2024 and 2025 trials include cases under both the old and new rules.

Nonjudicial punishment and administrative separations are not in this data. The records do not show the evidence or the plea terms. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so plea counts use only the records that include it.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 134 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.