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

Trends › By Offense › Article 87a › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 30 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Every Case Included Other Charges

Resisting apprehension was never the only charge here. All 30 cases charged at least one other article.

No single other charge was in most cases. Article 86 (AWOL) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 9 cases, and Article 92 (orders violation), Article 121 (larceny), and Article 112a (drug) in 8 each. A court-martial sentence covers every charge, so the sentences below are for the whole case.

Discharges for Most of Those Convicted

A punitive discharge followed 80% of the convictions, slightly more often than the 76% across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 87a cases. Almost all were bad-conduct discharges: 23 bad-conduct and 1 dishonorable.

A bad-conduct discharge can be adjudged by either a special or a general court-martial; a dishonorable discharge requires a general court-martial. A sentence with no punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

Confinement in Almost Every Case

Every one of the 30 cases ended in a conviction, and 29 of those sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 87a cases. A quarter of sentences were 1.1 years or more.

The sentence bands are close to those for all Article 87a cases. Sentences under 6 months made up 40% of convictions here and 42% across the service. The 6 months to 1 year band had 30%, compared with 27%. The band of more than 1 year but under 5 years had 23%, compared with 21%.

In all, 8 of 30 convictions (27%) brought more than one year, the same as the 27% for all Article 87a cases. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

Sentences by Court Level

General courts-martial heard 10 of the 30 cases (33%), the same share as in all Navy and Marine Corps Article 87a cases. Special courts-martial heard the other 20.

The median confinement was 1.4 years at general courts-martial and 5 months at special courts-martial. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge, so all 8 sentences longer than one year came from general courts-martial.

Pleas on Record

Of the 30 records, 20 list a plea. Among them, 14 accused pleaded guilty and 6 contested at least one charge. A case counts as contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge.

The contested share, 30%, is about the same as the 29% for all Navy and Marine Corps resisting apprehension cases. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so the share uses only the records that include it.

Few Cases Each Year

No year had many of these cases. There were 3 cases in each year from 2017 through 2020, 6 in 2021, 3 in 2022, 2 in 2023, 5 in 2024, and 2 in 2025. The records run from July 2017 to December 2025.

With 30 cases in total, a few cases can change any percentage on this page. That also applies to the comparisons with the service figures.

Where the Cases Were Heard

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 10 of the cases. Camp Pendleton, California had 6, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay 4, and Bremerton, Washington and Norfolk, Virginia 2 each. These five installations account for 80% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a count alone does not show a problem at any base.

The group is more junior than all Navy and Marine Corps Article 87a accused, which also included more senior ranks. The court-level split and sentence bands are close to the service figures.

Law Changes and Limits

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It added 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 cannot show which rules applied to recent trials.

Incidents handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included. The records do not describe the evidence or plea terms.

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.