Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial in 2025: Year in Review
The Navy and Marine Corps records hold 353 courts-martial for 2025. Only 46% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 69% in the other services in 2025.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Short answer: The Navy and Marine Corps records hold 353 courts-martial for 2025. Only 46% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 69% in the other services in 2025. Of 128 contested cases that reached a verdict, 35 ended in a full acquittal (27%), compared with 45% in the other services.
Fewer Punitive Discharges
Of 287 enlisted members convicted in 2025, 131 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (46%). The share was 58% in 2024 and 69% in the other services in 2025. Of the 131 discharges, 36 were dishonorable.
Of 14 convicted officers or warrant officers, 4 were dismissed. Dismissal is the officer form of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which is not in these records.
Lighter Sentences in Every Band
Of 312 convictions, 215 included confinement. The median confinement was 4 months, shorter than the 7 months in the other services in 2025 and the 5 months in 2024. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in a case.
97 convictions (31%) had no confinement, compared with 17% in the other services. Terms longer than 1 year were less common: 50 of 312 convictions (16%), compared with 29%. Sentences of 5 years or more were 5%, compared with 11%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the other services in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 97 | 31% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 116 | 37% | 38% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 49 | 16% | 16% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 33 | 11% | 17% |
| 5 years or more | 17 | 5% | 11% |
More Cases Were Contested
Of the 342 records that list a plea, 214 show a guilty plea and 128 show a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The contested share was 37%. In the other services in 2025, 26% of cases were contested. The Navy and Marine Corps figure in 2024 was 34%.
Of the 128 contested cases that reached a verdict, 35 ended in a full acquittal, a 27% rate. That is lower than the 45% in the other services in 2025. A full acquittal means not guilty of every charge.
Orders Violations Were the Most Common Charge
Charge lists exist for 352 of the 353 cases, and each article counts once per case. Article 92 (orders violation) was charged in 24% of cases, compared with 11% in the other services in 2025. Article 81 (conspiracy) was charged in 6%, compared with 2%.
Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) was charged in 11%, compared with 22% in the other services. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged in 5%, compared with 12%. Article 128 (assault) was charged in 16% of cases, the same as in the comparison group.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the other services in 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 83 | 24% | 11% |
| Art. 134 General article | 73 | 21% | 22% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 58 | 16% | 16% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 40 | 11% | 22% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 35 | 10% | 9% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 27 | 8% | 6% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 27 | 8% | 5% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 23 | 7% | 7% |
Pleas and Convictions by Charge
Cases charging Article 128b ended in a guilty plea 70% of the time (28 of 40), the highest among the most common charges. Cases charging Article 128 ended in a guilty plea 54% of the time (31 of 57). The records give no reason for any plea.
Article 128b cases also most often ended in a conviction on that article (38 of 40, or 95%). Article 128 cases least often did (48 of 58, or 83%). The median confinement on conviction was 1 year for Article 134, 6 months for Article 128b, and 3 months for Article 92 and Article 128.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 83 | 76 (92%) | 3 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 73 | 66 (90%) | 1 year |
| Art. 128 Assault | 58 | 48 (83%) | 3 months |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 40 | 38 (95%) | 6 months |
Most Cases Were Special Courts-Martial
General courts-martial, which can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, were 36% of the year's cases (127 of 353). Special courts-martial, which can impose no more than 1 year of confinement, were the rest.
At the 127 general courts-martial, the median confinement was 1.2 years and 40% of cases were contested. At the 226 special courts-martial, the median was 3 months and 36% of cases were contested.
Rank and Location
Among the accused with rank recorded, 205 were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 112 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 16 were officers or warrant officers. The accused were more junior than in the other services in 2025, where 53% were junior enlisted members.
Camp Pendleton, California (55), San Diego, California (38), Camp Lejeune, North Carolina (37), Norfolk, Virginia (31), and Quantico, Virginia (22) tried the most cases. Together they account for 52% of the 353.
Rule Changes During the Year
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel rather than commanders have decided whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters.
Those rules depend on offense dates, which the records do not give, so 2025 trials include cases under both sets of rules. The changes in sentences and discharges above happened in the same period. The records cannot show whether the rules caused them.
Compared With 2024, and the Limits
There were 353 cases in 2025, compared with 394 in 2024. The general court-martial share was 36%, compared with 38%. Convictions with confinement were 69%, compared with 75%. A few cases can change figures for small groups, so these changes show direction, not exact size.
Trial records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled outside a court-martial.
| 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 394 | 353 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 34% | 37% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 35 of 128 | 35 of 128 |
| Convictions with confinement | 75% | 69% |
| Median confinement | 5 months | 4 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 58% | 46% |
| General courts-martial | 38% | 36% |
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every Navy and Marine Corps court-martial in the data with a trial date in 2025 (353 cases), compared with the other services in 2025 and with 2024.
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
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2024 (previous / next)
- How 2021 Went at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial in 2019: Year in Review
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial in 2022: Year in Review
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial in 2023: Year in Review
- The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2017
- The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2018
- 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.