Is Navy-Marine Corps Desertion Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 85, 2017–2025
Both, at different times. Navy and Marine Corps convictions that included Article 85 (desertion) were highest in 2022, with 12, and 2023, with 11. That was 4% of convictions with offenses listed in each of those years. There were 3 a year in 2024 and 2025.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Offense › Article 85 › Navy-Marine Corps
Short answer: Both, at different times. Navy and Marine Corps convictions that included Article 85 (desertion) were highest in 2022, with 12, and 2023, with 11. That was 4% of convictions with offenses listed in each of those years. There were 3 a year in 2024 and 2025. Across all 52 cases, none of the 13 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal.
Cases by Year
There were 5 cases in 2017, 2 in 2018, 4 in 2019, 3 in 2020, 9 in 2021, 12 in 2022, 11 in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 3 in 2025. The 52 cases were 1% of the 3,740 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from May 2017 through December 2025.
As a share of convictions with offenses listed, desertion was 0% to 1% from 2017 through 2020. It was 2% in 2021, 4% in 2022 and 2023, and 1% in 2024 and 2025. Shares make years with different numbers of cases comparable, but in counts this small a few cases can change each figure.
| Year | Convictions incl. Art. 85 | All convictions with offenses listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 5 | 437 | 1% |
| 2018 | 2 | 433 | 0% |
| 2019 | 4 | 373 | 1% |
| 2020 | 3 | 354 | 1% |
| 2021 | 9 | 385 | 2% |
| 2022 | 12 | 322 | 4% |
| 2023 | 11 | 283 | 4% |
| 2024 | 3 | 345 | 1% |
| 2025 | 3 | 312 | 1% |
No Full Acquittals in Contested Cases
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of 47 records that list a plea, 13 were contested and 34 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 28%, compared with 32% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
None of the 13 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (0%), compared with 31% across all Navy and Marine Corps cases. Another 3 (23%) ended in a partial acquittal, meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.
With only 13 contested cases, a single verdict can change these figures. The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
Drug Charges Were the Most Common Other Charge
Only 9 of the 52 cases charged Article 85 by itself. The most common other charge was Article 112a (drug offenses), in 21 cases. Article 86 (absence without leave) appeared in 10, Article 107 (false official statement) in 8, Article 87 (missing movement) in 8, and Article 134 (the general article) in 7.
A sentence covers every charge, so the figures below are for the whole case, not desertion alone.
Short Confinement in Almost Every Conviction
Confinement was part of 94% of the 52 convictions. The median confinement was 5 months, compared with 6 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of sentences were 11 months or longer.
Most sentences were short. Only 6% of convictions carried no confinement, compared with 18% across the service. Sentences under 6 months made up 56%, compared with 35%. Sentences longer than one year were less common: 9 of 52 convictions (17%), compared with 25%. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 3 | 6% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 29 | 56% | 35% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 11 | 21% | 22% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8 | 15% | 18% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 2% | 7% |
Punitive Discharges Were More Common
Among 48 enlisted members convicted, 36 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (75%), more often than the 62% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Of those, 7 were dishonorable. Of 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 2 were dismissed.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not show.
Court Level and Rank
A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. General courts-martial made up 33% of these cases (17 of 52), with a median confinement of 1.7 years and 40% contested. At the 35 special courts-martial, the median was 3 months, and 22% were contested.
By rank, the accused were 42 junior enlisted members, 6 NCOs, and 3 officers. This group was more junior than the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Where Desertion Cases Were Tried
Norfolk, Virginia (20), Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (8), Bremerton, Washington (6), San Diego, California (5), and Jacksonville, Florida (2) had the most cases. Together they account for 79% of the 52 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so these counts do not show a problem at any single base.
Law Changes Across 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 capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Cases with offenses from before 2019 kept the old rules. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. Judges sentence within new parameters when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023.
Those rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give. The lower counts after 2023 came in the same period as these changes, and the records cannot show whether one caused the other.
What the Records Do Not Show
Only cases that went to court-martial appear. Desertion handled through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action is not included. The records do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial tried 2017–2025 that charged Article 85 (52 cases). The trend line uses convictions whose records list the offenses found, by trial year.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Article 85 (Desertion): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Offense (hub)
- Fewer or More? Desertion Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 (another service)
- Air Force Article 85 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025 (another service)
- Fewer or More? Attempt Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025
- Fewer or More? Child Endangerment Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025
- Fewer or More? Child Sexual Abuse Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Desertion Conviction?
- Search every case in 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. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.