Navy-Marine Corps Conspiracy Cases Against Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4): Outcomes and Sentences

Trends › By Offense › Article 81 › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 191 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Every Case Ended in a Conviction

All 191 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Of the 18 contested cases that reached a verdict, 0 ended in a full acquittal. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases, 9% did.

Some contested cases still had not-guilty findings. Another 5 ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.

Most Cases Included Other Charges

Only 4 of the 191 cases charged Article 81 by itself; across the service, 6 of 249 Article 81 cases did. A conspiracy charge describes an agreement to commit some other offense. The other charges show which offenses were most common.

Article 112a (drug) appeared in 104 cases, more than any other article. Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 42, Article 92 (orders violation) in 34, Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) in 28, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 24.

Most Accused Pleaded Guilty

Of 124 records with a plea listed, 106 were guilty pleas and 18 were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share, 15%, is lower than the 20% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases.

Many older records do not list the plea. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit it, so these shares use only the records that show one.

Confinement in Almost Every Conviction

Of the 191 sentences, 183 included confinement (96%). The median confinement was 8 months, shorter than the 9-month median for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases. A quarter of sentences were 1.2 years or more.

Most sentences were 1 year or less. The 6 months to 1 year band had 35% of convictions, compared with 31% for all Article 81 cases. Sentences under 6 months made up 32%, compared with 30%. Only 4% had no confinement, compared with 8%.

Sentences longer than one year followed 55 of 191 convictions (29%), slightly less often than the 32% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover all charges.

Punitive Discharges

A punitive discharge followed 83% of convictions here, about the same as the 81% across the service. Of those, 127 were bad-conduct discharges and 32 were dishonorable discharges.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These records do not show administrative separations.

Special Courts-Martial Heard Most Cases

Of the 191 cases, 112 were tried at special courts-martial and 79 at general courts-martial. The general share, 41%, is lower than the 45% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 81 cases.

The median confinement was 1.5 years at general courts-martial and 5 months at special courts-martial, where confinement is capped at one year. The contested shares were 17% and 13%.

Cases by Year and Installation

There were 31 cases in 2017, 30 in 2018, 17 in 2019, 22 in 2020, and 39 in 2021. There were 14 in 2022, 11 in 2023, 13 in 2024, and 14 in 2025. The latest trial was in October 2025.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 45 of the cases. Camp Pendleton, California had 23, Bremerton, Washington 20, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay 18, and Norfolk, Virginia 16. Together these account for 64% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count alone does not show a problem at a base.

Rules and Records

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, adding written plea agreements and judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records give trial dates, not offense dates, so they do not show which rules applied to each recent trial.

Conspiracy allegations handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or the terms of any plea agreement.

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.