When Navy-Marine Corps Accused Plead Guilty to Orders Violation
From 2017–2025, 254 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial ended in a guilty plea to charges that included Article 92 (orders violation). The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas.
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Short answer: From 2017–2025, 254 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial ended in a guilty plea to charges that included Article 92 (orders violation). The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. Of convicted enlisted members, 55% received a punitive discharge, compared with 60%.
Guilty Pleas Only
This post covers only guilty pleas: Navy and Marine Corps cases where the accused pleaded guilty to charges that included Article 92. Article 92 covers failing to obey a lawful order or regulation and dereliction of duty. All 254 cases ended in a conviction, so this post is about sentences, not verdicts.
The comparison group throughout is all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in the same years. Compared with that group, sentences in orders-violation pleas were lighter on nearly every measure in the records.
Shorter Confinement, More Sentences Without Confinement
Confinement was part of 76% of the 254 sentences. The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas. A quarter of terms were 10 months or longer.
24% of these convictions had no confinement, compared with 15% in the comparison group. Sentences longer than 1 year were in 27 of 254 convictions (11%), compared with 21%. Terms of 5 years or more were 2% here, compared with 5%.
These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. In a guilty plea, an agreement may limit the sentence, and these records do not show those terms.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 62 | 24% | 15% |
| Under 6 months | 114 | 45% | 40% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 51 | 20% | 24% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 21 | 8% | 16% |
| 5 years or more | 6 | 2% | 5% |
Fewer Punitive Discharges
A punitive discharge followed 55% of enlisted convictions: 110 bad-conduct discharges and 20 dishonorable discharges. Across all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas, the share was 60%.
Of 9 convicted officers or warrant officers, 1 was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Most Cases Were Special Courts-Martial
Special courts-martial tried 189 of these cases and general courts-martial tried 65, so the general court-martial share was 26%. The median confinement at special courts-martial was 3 months.
A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial can impose no more than 1 year of confinement. It can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, limited to 6 months of confinement with no punitive discharge.
Other Charges in the Same Pleas
In 213 of the 254 cases, at least one other article was charged with Article 92. The most common other charges were Article 112a (drug offenses) in 55 cases, Article 128 (assault) in 51, Article 134 (the general article) in 35, Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) in 23, and Article 107 (false official statement) in 22.
A sentence covers every charge in the case. These figures describe all of the charges, not the orders violation alone.
A More Senior Group Than Most Pleas
The accused were 151 junior enlisted members, 86 NCOs, and 9 officers. The accused were more senior than in all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in the same years. Article 92 also covers dereliction of duty, a charge tied to assigned responsibilities. The records do not say which part of the article each case involved.
Most Cases Are From 2021 or Later
There were 9 cases in 2017, 12 in 2018, 14 in 2019, 12 in 2020, 53 in 2021, 39 in 2022, 35 in 2023, 33 in 2024, and 47 in 2025. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, and only cases with a plea listed are counted here. The records cannot show how many earlier cases were guilty pleas.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina had the most cases (48). San Diego, California had 31, Camp Pendleton, California 31, Norfolk, Virginia 28, and Bremerton, Washington 16. Together these locations account for 61% of the 254. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.
Rule Changes in the Period
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It introduced written plea agreements and judge-alone special courts-martial. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both changes depend on offense dates, which these records do not give.
What the Records Leave Out
The records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Orders violations handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not in these records.
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 tried 2017–2025: where the accused pleaded guilty to charges including Article 92 (orders violation) (254 cases), compared with all Navy and Marine Corps guilty pleas in those years.
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)
- Sentences (hub)
- Is Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Prosecution Rising or Falling? Article 92, 2017–2025
- What Sentence Follows a Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Conviction?
- How Often Are Contested Navy-Marine Corps Article 92 Cases Acquitted?
- Pleading Guilty to Article 92 in the Army: What Sentences Followed? (another service)
- Pleading Guilty to Article 92 in the Air Force: What Sentences Followed? (another service)
- 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.