How Navy-Marine Corps Conspiracy Cases Ended in 2018

Trends › By Offense › Article 81 › Navy-Marine Corps, 2018

Based on 43 cases · 2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Discharges Were Bad-Conduct Discharges

Of convicted enlisted members, 26 received a bad-conduct discharge and 6 received a dishonorable discharge. Together, punitive discharges followed 82% of enlisted convictions, compared with 66% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases.

The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. Members whose sentences carry no punitive discharge may still be separated administratively, which these records do not show.

Mostly Special Courts-Martial

In 2018, more conspiracy cases were tried at special courts-martial than at general courts-martial: 26 special and 17 general. The general share, 40%, was slightly lower than the 45% across the service.

A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial has no such limit. Every general court-martial conviction here brought confinement, with a median of 2.1 years. At the special level, 92% of convictions brought confinement, with a median of 6 months.

Confinement Close to the Service Median

Of the 43 cases, 41 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 39 of those sentences included confinement (95%). The median confinement was 9 months, compared with 7 months across the service. A quarter of sentences were 2 years or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers all the charges in a case.

Sentence Lengths by Band

The under 6 months band had 13 convictions (32%), the same 32% as across the service. The 6 months to 1 year band had 12 (29%), compared with 23%. Another 11 convictions (27%) were between 1 and 5 years, and 3 (7%) were 5 years or more, compared with 9% across the service.

In all, 14 of 41 convictions (34%) carried more than one year, close to the 30% service figure. Only 2 (5%) had no confinement at all, compared with 15% across the Navy and Marine Corps.

Other Charges in Conspiracy Cases

Just 2 of the 43 cases charged Article 81 by itself. Article 121 (larceny) was the most common other charge, in 16 cases. Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) appeared in 13, Article 112a (drug) in 11, and Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 82 (solicitation) in 8 each.

Article 131b has carried that number only since 2019, so the label for these 2018 trials follows the later numbering. A sentence covers every charge in a case, so the confinement and discharge figures above include these other offenses as well as the conspiracy charge.

Pleas, Where Recorded

Only 12 of the 43 records list a plea. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea. Of those, 8 accused pleaded guilty and 4 contested, meaning a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 33%, compared with 28% across the service. It is based on very few cases.

The records available for this group give no breakdown of verdicts in those 4 contested cases, so no acquittal rate is reported here. With so few recorded pleas, the contested share is the least certain figure on this page.

Change From 2017

The number of cases went from 38 to 43. The contested share went from 0% to 33%, and the general court-martial share went from 58% to 40%. Median confinement stayed at 9 months. Convictions with confinement went from 100% to 95%, and enlisted punitive discharges went from 87% to 82%.

In counts this small, a few cases can change each figure, so the changes show direction, not precise size.

The Accused and Their Bases

Among the accused with rank recorded, 30 were junior enlisted, 10 were NCOs, and 1 was an officer. The group was more junior than all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2018.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 14 of the cases, the most of any installation. Camp Pendleton, California tried 8, Okinawa, Japan 5, Norfolk, Virginia 4, and Bremerton, Washington 3. Together they account for 79% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count alone does not show a problem at any one base.

The Pre-2019 Rules and What the Records Do Not Show

All of these trials came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. Its fixed panel sizes, judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months without a punitive discharge, and written plea agreements did not apply.

The records give trial dates rather than offense dates. They do not show the evidence, plea terms, or cases 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.