Fewer or More? Resisting Apprehension Charges at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2017–2025
Navy and Marine Corps records hold 33 courts-martial charging Article 87a (resisting apprehension) from 2017 to 2025, and every one ended in a conviction on at least one charge. A punitive discharge followed 76% of enlisted convictions, compared with 62% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
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Trends › By Offense › Article 87a › Navy-Marine Corps
Short answer: Navy and Marine Corps records hold 33 courts-martial charging Article 87a (resisting apprehension) from 2017 to 2025, and every one ended in a conviction on at least one charge. A punitive discharge followed 76% of enlisted convictions, compared with 62% across the Navy and Marine Corps. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Confinement in Almost Every Case
All 33 cases produced a conviction on at least one charge, and 32 of those sentences included confinement (97%). Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 18% of convictions carried no confinement. Here only 1 did.
The length of confinement was close to the service figures. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of sentences were 1.1 years or longer. Sentences longer than one year followed 9 of 33 convictions (27%), about as often as the 25% across all cases. Sentences under 6 months made up 42%, and sentences of 6 months to 1 year made up 27%.
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 1 | 3% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 14 | 42% | 35% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 9 | 27% | 22% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 7 | 21% | 18% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 6% | 7% |
More Punitive Discharges Than Across the Service
Among convicted enlisted members, 76% received a punitive discharge: 23 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable. The Navy and Marine Corps rate was 62%. A punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge for enlisted members, and a sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Every Case Included Other Charges
No case in this group charged resisting apprehension by itself. The most common other charge was Article 128 (assault), in 10 cases. Article 86 (AWOL) and Article 112a (drug) each appeared in 9, and Article 92 (orders violation) and Article 121 (larceny) in 8 each.
The sentence in each case covers all of its charges, so the discharge and confinement figures above include those other offenses as well as the resisting charge.
Most Cases at Special Courts-Martial
Special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge, heard 22 of the cases. General courts-martial, which can adjudge any lawful sentence, heard 11. That is a 33% share, compared with 43% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
The median confinement was 1.5 years at general courts-martial and 4 months at special courts-martial.
Pleas on Record
Only 21 of the 33 records list a plea. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit it. Of those 21, 15 were guilty pleas and 6 were contested, meaning a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The contested share, 29%, is about the same as the 32% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
With so few contested cases on record, this page does not report how those trials ended.
Cases by Year
The trials took place from May 2017 to December 2025. There were 6 in 2017, 3 in each of 2018, 2019, and 2020, 6 in 2021, 3 in 2022, 2 in 2023, 5 in 2024, and 2 in 2025. Together they are 1% of the 3,740 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial in those years.
The offense was about the same share of convictions over time. It was part of 12 of 1,243 convictions with offenses listed (1%) in 2017–2019 and 9 of 940 (1%) in 2023–2025. With counts this low, a few cases can change a yearly figure.
| Year | Convictions incl. Art. 87a | All convictions with offenses listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 6 | 437 | 1% |
| 2018 | 3 | 433 | 1% |
| 2019 | 3 | 373 | 1% |
| 2020 | 3 | 354 | 1% |
| 2021 | 6 | 385 | 2% |
| 2022 | 3 | 322 | 1% |
| 2023 | 2 | 283 | 1% |
| 2024 | 5 | 345 | 1% |
| 2025 | 2 | 312 | 1% |
Rank and Installation
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 91% of the accused and NCOs 9%, with no officers. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, junior enlisted members were 63% of the accused.
Most cases came from a few installations. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had 11, Camp Pendleton, California 6, Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay 4, Bremerton, Washington 3, and Quantico, Virginia 2. Those five account for 79% of the 33 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so the counts alone do not show a local problem.
Law Changes and What the Records Do Not Show
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge and brought in written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. For offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets sentences within new parameters. The records do not give offense dates, so the rules for each case cannot be confirmed.
The evidence, plea terms, and incidents handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not in these records.
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 87a (33 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 87a (Resisting Apprehension, Numbered Since 2019): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Offense (hub)
- Fewer or More? Resisting Apprehension Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 (another service)
- How Has Article 87a Changed in Air Force Courts-Martial Since 2016? (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 Resisting Apprehension 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.