How Much Confinement for an Article 87b Conviction in the Navy-Marine Corps?

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Based on 19 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Guilty Pleas and Contested Cases

Guilty pleas numbered 10. Contested cases, meaning a plea of not guilty to at least one charge, numbered 9. That 47% contested share is higher than the 24% recorded across the Navy and Marine Corps from 2017 to 2025.

Shorter Confinement

Confinement appeared in 16 of the 19 sentences (84%). Its median, 3 months, is lower than the Navy and Marine Corps median of 6 months. At the upper end, a quarter of the confinement terms reached 11 months or more.

Every figure here is the sentence adjudged at trial. A plea-agreement cap, clemency, or an appeal could change it later. A single sentence also covers all of the charges in a case.

Almost Entirely Junior Enlisted

Of the accused, 18 held junior enlisted grades (E-1 to E-4) and 1 was an NCO (E-5 to E-9). There were no officers or warrant officers. Junior enlisted members accounted for 65% of all Navy and Marine Corps convictions in this period, so this group was more junior.

Only 2 of the 19 cases (11%) were general courts-martial. Special courts-martial heard the rest. That lower court level limits confinement to one year and allows a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge; a general court-martial has neither limit.

Punitive Discharges

Among the 19 convicted enlisted members, 9 left with a punitive discharge. 8 of those were bad-conduct discharges and 1 was dishonorable. Navy and Marine Corps convictions as a whole carried a punitive discharge 62% of the time.

Members who did not receive one could still face an administrative separation, which these records do not track.

Drug, Larceny, and Orders Charges

In 16 of the 19 cases, prosecutors charged at least one other article. Article 112a (drug) was listed in 7. Article 121 (larceny) and Article 92 (orders violation) were listed in 6 apiece. Article 90 (disobeying an officer) and Article 115 (malingering before 2019; communicating threats since) were listed in 3 apiece.

No Cases Before 2021

No conviction under this article appears for 2017, 2018, 2019, or 2020. The first trial came in November 2021 and the last in October 2025. By year: 1 in 2021, 5 in 2022, 5 in 2023, 4 in 2024, and 4 in 2025.

Rule Changes and Record Gaps

On January 1, 2019, the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect, fixing panel sizes and introducing written plea agreements. Starting December 28, 2023, special trial counsel took over prosecution decisions for covered offenses, and a case whose guilty findings all involve offenses after December 27, 2023 is sentenced by the military judge under new sentencing parameters. Since only trial dates are recorded, cases tried from 2024 on cannot be split between the older and newer rules.

Nothing in these records describes the evidence or the terms of a plea. Nonjudicial punishment and administrative separations fall outside them.

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.