> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, April 2017: The Month in Review - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-april-2017/ - Published: 2026-10-28T08:13:28.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:09:17.000Z - Description: Navy and Marine Corps records show 49 courts-martial tried in April 2017. False official statement charges under Article 107 were in 20% of the cases, compared with 11% for the Navy and Marine Corps across all of 2017. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Navy-Marine Corps [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-year/) › April 2017 **Short answer:** Navy and Marine Corps records show 49 courts-martial tried in April 2017\. False official statement charges under Article 107 were in 20% of the cases, compared with 11% for the Navy and Marine Corps across all of 2017\. Only 19% of the cases with a recorded plea were contested, compared with 26% for the year. Based on 49 cases · April 2017 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## More False Statement and Conspiracy Charges Charge lists exist for 46 of the 49 cases, and a case with several articles is counted under each. Article 107 (false official statements) was charged in 9 cases, a 20% share, compared with 11% across 2017\. Article 81 (conspiracy) was charged in 7 cases, or 15%, compared with 8% for the year. The most common charges were closer to the yearly figures. Article 128 (assault) was the most common, in 17 cases, the same 37% share as the full year. Article 112a, covering wrongful use or possession of controlled substances, was charged in 15 cases (33%, compared with 31%). Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) was charged in 10 (22%, compared with 19%). | UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | [Art. 128](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Assault | 17 | 37% | 37% | | [Art. 112a](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-112a-drug-offenses/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 15 | 33% | 31% | | [Art. 120](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-120-sexual-assault/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault | 10 | 22% | 19% | | [Art. 107](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-107/?ref=bodiesburied.com) False official statements | 9 | 20% | 11% | | [Art. 92](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-92/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Failure to obey order or regulation | 9 | 20% | 16% | | Art. 81 Conspiracy | 7 | 15% | 8% | | [Art. 134](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-134/?ref=bodiesburied.com) General article | 6 | 13% | 13% | | [Art. 80](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-80/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Attempts | 5 | 11% | 10% | ## Conviction Rates and Terms by Charge For the most common charges, most cases ended in a conviction on that article. All 10 cases charging Article 120 ended with a conviction under it, and the median confinement in those cases was 9 years. Of the 17 assault cases, 15 (88%) ended in an assault conviction, with a median of 3 years. Drug charges ended in a conviction in 14 of 15 cases (93%), with a median of 6 months. All 9 false official statement cases ended with a conviction on that article, with a median of 5 months. Each median covers the full sentence in those cases, not only the time tied to the one charge. | Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it | | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------- | ----------------------- | --------------------------------------- | | Art. 128 Assault | 17 | 15 (88%) | 3 years | | Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 15 | 14 (93%) | 6 months | | Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 10 | 10 (100%) | 9 years | | Art. 107 False official statements | 9 | 9 (9 of 9) | 5 months | ## Few Cases Were Contested Only 21 of the 49 records list the plea. Of those, 17 were guilty pleas and 4 were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 19%, lower than the 26% for the Navy and Marine Corps in 2017. Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often leave out the plea, so this share is based on fewer records than the full set of cases. ## Confinement in Nearly Every Conviction In 45 cases, the accused was convicted of at least one charge, and 43 of those sentences included confinement (96%). The median confinement was 8 months, the same as the 8 months for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2017\. A quarter of these terms were 3 years or more. All of these are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Only 2 convictions (4%) had no confinement, compared with 10% for the year. ## More Sentences of 5 Years or More Terms of 5 years or more were 18% of convictions here, compared with 10% across 2017\. Terms from more than 1 year to under 5 years were 16%, slightly lower than the yearly 20%. In all, 15 of 45 convictions (33%) were longer than 1 year, close to the 31% for the year. 18 convictions (40%) carried under 6 months and 10 (22%) carried 6 months to 1 year. Both shares were close to the full-year shares. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | No confinement | 2 | 4% | 10% | | Under 6 months | 18 | 40% | 37% | | 6 months to 1 year | 10 | 22% | 23% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 7 | 16% | 20% | | 5 years or more | 8 | 18% | 10% | ## General and Special Courts-Martial 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 and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge. In April 2017, 24 cases (49%) were general courts-martial, slightly higher than the 44% for the year. Confinement rates were about the same at both levels: 95% at general courts-martial and 96% at the 25 special courts-martial. The length was very different: the median was 3 years at general courts-martial and 5 months at special courts-martial. ## Discharges for Enlisted Members and 1 Officer Of 43 convicted enlisted members, 30 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (70%), about the same as the 68% for the year. Of those 30 discharges, 12 were dishonorable. The month's 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation afterward. ## Rank and Location of the Accused Among the accused with rank recorded, 36 were junior enlisted members, 8 were NCOs, and 1 was an officer. The accused this month were more junior than in the year as a whole. Camp Pendleton, California tried the most cases, 8\. Bremerton, Washington tried 7, and Norfolk, Virginia, Okinawa, Japan, and San Diego, California tried 5 each. These 5 locations account for 61% of the 49 cases. Large installations try more cases of every type, so a high count says little about any one base. ## Before the 2019 Changes, and Gaps in the Records These trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019\. That law later fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial limited to 6 months of confinement with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied here. The records cover only cases that reached a courtroom. They do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, or cases dropped without action. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial with a trial date in April 2017 (49 cases), compared with the whole year. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial/) (hub) - [By Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-year/) (hub) - [March 2017 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 50 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-march-2017/) (previous / next) - [What the Navy-Marine Corps Tried in May 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-may-2017/) (previous / next) - [The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-2017-year-in-review/) (the whole year) - [April 2018 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 43 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-april-2018/) - [April 2020 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 18 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-april-2020/) - [August 2017 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 37 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-august-2017/) - [August 2019 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 34 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-august-2019/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) ← Previous: [March 2017 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 50 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-march-2017/)Next: [What the Navy-Marine Corps Tried in May 2017](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/navy-marine-corps-courts-martial-may-2017/) → **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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.