Navy-Marine Corps Article 92 Cases in 2019
Of 66 enlisted members convicted in 2019 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial charging Article 92 (orders violation), 30 received a punitive discharge (45%), lower than the 60% across the service. The records hold 71 such cases that year.
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Trends › By Offense › Article 92 › Navy-Marine Corps, 2019
Short answer: Of 66 enlisted members convicted in 2019 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial charging Article 92 (orders violation), 30 received a punitive discharge (45%), lower than the 60% across the service. The records hold 71 such cases that year. Of those with a recorded plea, 18% were contested, compared with 28% for all Navy and Marine Corps cases.
Fewer Punitive Discharges Than the Service
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge imposed as part of a court-martial sentence. Here 24 enlisted members received a bad-conduct discharge and 6 received a dishonorable discharge, together 45% of enlisted convictions. Across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2019, the share was 60%.
The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. A member whose sentence does not include a punitive discharge can still be separated administratively. These records do not track administrative separations.
Many Sentences Had No Confinement
Of 67 convictions, 48 included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the 6 months across the service. A quarter of terms were 11 months or longer.
19 convictions (28%) had no confinement, compared with 18% across the service. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case.
Few Terms Over 1 Year
Only 9 of the 67 convictions (13%) carried more than 1 year of confinement, compared with 24% across the service. Of those, 8 (12%) were between 1 and 5 years and 1 (1%) was 5 years or more.
The shorter bands were about the same as across the service. Under 6 months: 24 convictions (36%), compared with 35%. 6 months to 1 year: 15 (22%), compared with 23%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 19 | 28% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 24 | 36% | 35% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 15 | 22% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8 | 12% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 1% | 5% |
Most Cases Were Special Courts-Martial
Of the 71 cases, 49 were special courts-martial and 22 were general courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 31%, compared with 43% across the service. A special court-martial can impose no more than 1 year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial has no such limits.
The median confinement was 10 months at general courts-martial and 3 months at special courts-martial. Even at general courts-martial, the median here was under 1 year.
A More Senior Group
Among the accused with rank recorded, 36 were junior enlisted members, 31 were NCOs, and 1 was an officer. The accused were more senior than in all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2019, and NCOs were a large part of the group.
The records show each person's rank and outcome. They do not show how rank affected any individual sentence. The data cannot link the higher share of NCOs to the lower discharge share.
Other Charges in the Same Cases
Article 92 was the only charge in 12 of the 71 cases. Article 112a (drug) and Article 128 (assault) were the most common other charges, in 15 cases each. Article 134 (general article) and Article 107 (false official statement) were each charged in 13, and Article 121 (larceny) in 11.
A sentence covers the whole case. The outcomes above describe these combinations, not the orders violation alone.
Pleas, and Changes Since 2018
Of the 17 records that list a plea, 14 show a guilty plea and 3 show a contested case (a not-guilty or mixed plea). Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so the 18% contested share rests on a small number of records.
There were 71 cases in 2019, compared with 63 in 2018. The contested share was 18%, compared with 8%. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict were 1 of 1 in 2018 and 1 of 3 in 2019. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with 7 months. Convictions with confinement were about the same, 71% and 72%, and so was the general court-martial share, 30% and 31%. The largest change was in enlisted punitive discharges: 61% in 2018 and 45% in 2019. A few cases can change figures for small groups, so these changes show direction only.
| 2018 | 2019 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 63 | 71 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 8% | 18% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 1 of 1 | 1 of 3 |
| Convictions with confinement | 71% | 72% |
| Median confinement | 7 months | 6 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 61% | 45% |
| General courts-martial | 30% | 31% |
Installations With the Most Cases
Camp Pendleton, California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina each tried 17 of these cases. San Diego, California tried 8, and Quantico, Virginia and Twentynine Palms, California tried 4 each. Together these 5 locations account for 70% of the 71 cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so these counts do not mark any base as unusual.
Limits of the Data
The records give trial dates rather than offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms. They do not include orders violations handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation, which do not reach a court-martial.
Because only trial dates appear, a case tried in 2019 may concern conduct from an earlier year. The records cannot show which rules applied to the offense itself.
For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial with a trial date in 2019 that charged Article 92 (71 cases), compared with all Navy and Marine Corps cases that year and with 2018.
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 92 (Failure to Obey Order or Regulation): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- How Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Cases Ended in 2018 (previous / next)
- Orders Violation at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2020: The Year in Numbers (previous / next)
- Is Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 92, 2017–2025 (the full trend)
- How Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Cases Ended in 2022
- How Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Cases Ended in 2024
- How Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Cases Ended in 2025
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Conviction?
- Article 92 explained on the law firm's website
- 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.