> ## 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 Conspiracy - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-81-plea-2017-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-28T06:33:35.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T05:13:18.000Z - Description: There were 128 Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas from 2017–2025 that included Article 81 (conspiracy), and Article 112a (drug) was charged in 76 of them. The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 6 months for all guilty pleas. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 81, Navy-Marine Corps [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 81](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-81-courts-martial/) › When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Gui **Short answer:** There were 128 Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas from 2017–2025 that included Article 81 (conspiracy), and Article 112a (drug) was charged in 76 of them. The median confinement was 7 months, compared with 6 months for all guilty pleas. Of convicted enlisted members, 76% received a punitive discharge, compared with 60%. Based on 128 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Other Charges in These Cases Conspiracy was the only charge in 3 of the 128 cases. Every case here is a guilty plea with an Article 81 charge among the charges. Article 112a (drug) appeared in 76 cases, more than any other charge. Article 92 (orders violation) appeared in 21, Article 121 (larceny) and Article 131b (obstruction) in 19 each, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 11\. A conspiracy charge describes an agreement to commit another offense. The other charges often show what that offense was. ## Discharges Were More Common Than in Other Pleas A punitive discharge followed 76% of enlisted convictions, compared with 60% in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. Of those, 79 were bad-conduct discharges and 17 were dishonorable discharges. For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge imposed as part of the sentence. A dishonorable discharge can come only from a general court-martial; the officer equivalent of either is a dismissal. These records do not show administrative separations, and a sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule them out. The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. ## Most Sentences Were 1 Year or Less The median confinement was 7 months. In all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas, it was 6 months. Of the 128 convictions, 92% included confinement, and a quarter of the sentences were 1 year or longer. The band from 6 months to 1 year had 36% of convictions, compared with 24% in all guilty pleas. Fewer convictions carried no confinement: 8%, compared with 15%. Sentences longer than one year were about as common as in all guilty pleas: 29 of 128 convictions (23%), compared with 21%. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, including any drug or larceny charges. The figures are adjudged sentences, as announced at trial. They do not reflect any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | | No confinement | 10 | 8% | 15% | | Under 6 months | 43 | 34% | 40% | | 6 months to 1 year | 46 | 36% | 24% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 24 | 19% | 16% | | 5 years or more | 5 | 4% | 5% | ## Two Court Levels Special courts-martial heard 81 of these cases and general courts-martial heard 47\. The general share, 37%, was the same as the 37% in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. At general courts-martial, 98% of convictions brought confinement, with a median of 1.2 years. At special courts-martial, 89% did, with a median of 5 months. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge, while a general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, with confinement capped at six months and no punitive discharge. The figures here do not separate that form from other special courts-martial. ## Mostly Junior Enlisted The accused were 106 junior enlisted members, 20 NCOs, and 1 officer. This group was more junior than all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years. ## Where These Cases Were Tried Bremerton, Washington tried the most of these cases (20). Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California tried 18 each, and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Camp Pendleton, California tried 11 each. Together those 5 installations account for 61% 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. ## Counts by Year The 128 cases were tried from January 2017 to November 2025: 13 in 2017, 8 in 2018, 12 in 2019, 12 in 2020, 32 in 2021, 12 in 2022, 8 in 2023, 13 in 2024, and 18 in 2025. Only records that list a guilty plea are counted. Before December 2020, Navy and Marine Corps records often omit the plea, so the counts for earlier years are incomplete. ## Rule Changes in the Period Written plea agreements came with the Military Justice Act of 2016, which took effect on January 1, 2019\. The same law brought fixed panel sizes and judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules. Special trial counsel have decided whether to prosecute covered offenses since December 28, 2023\. 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 cannot show which rules applied to a given plea or whether any change affected these numbers. ## What the Records Do Not Show The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included. 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 81 (conspiracy) (128 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 81 (Conspiracy): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-81-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Sentences](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/sentences/) (hub) - [Fewer or More? Conspiracy Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-81-trend-2017-2025/) - [How Much Confinement for an Article 81 Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-81-sent-2017-2025/) - [How Often Are Contested Navy-Marine Corps Article 81 Cases Acquitted?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-article-81-acq-2017-2025/) - [Guilty Pleas in Army Conspiracy Cases: How Often, and What Came Next](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-81-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.