August 2017 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 37 Cases
Navy and Marine Corps records show 37 courts-martial in August 2017. Article 80 (attempt) charges were in 18% of the cases with charges listed, compared with 10% for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2017.
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Trends › By Year › August 2017
Short answer: Navy and Marine Corps records show 37 courts-martial in August 2017. Article 80 (attempt) charges were in 18% of the cases with charges listed, compared with 10% for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2017. Of the cases with a recorded plea, 19% were contested, compared with 26% for the year.
More Attempt and Child Sexual Abuse Charges
Charge lists exist for 34 of the 37 cases, and a case with several articles is counted under each. Article 80, which covers attempts to commit another offense, was charged in 6 cases (18%), compared with 10% for the Navy and Marine Corps in 2017. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) was charged in 5 cases (15%), compared with 10%.
Drug charges were less common. Article 112a was charged in 8 cases, a 24% share, lower than the yearly 31%. Article 128 (assault) was the most common charge, in 12 cases (35%, close to 37% for the year). Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) was charged in 7 (21%, compared with 19%).
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 12 | 35% | 37% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 8 | 24% | 31% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 7 | 21% | 19% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 6 | 18% | 10% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 6 | 18% | 16% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 5 | 15% | 10% |
| Art. 134 General article | 4 | 12% | 13% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 4 | 12% | 11% |
More Sentences Between 1 and 5 Years
The month had 33 convictions, and 29 of those sentences included confinement (88%). The median confinement was 9 months, slightly longer than the 8 months for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2017. A quarter of the terms were 2 years or more.
Sentences of more than 1 year but under 5 years were 33% of convictions, compared with 20% for the year. Only 1 conviction (3%) was 5 years or more, compared with 10%. Terms under 6 months were less common than usual, at 27%, compared with 37%. In all, 12 of 33 convictions (36%) were longer than 1 year, compared with 31% across 2017.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 4 | 12% | 10% |
| Under 6 months | 9 | 27% | 37% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 8 | 24% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 11 | 33% | 20% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 3% | 10% |
More General Than Special Courts-Martial
Of the 37 trials, 20 were general courts-martial and 17 were special courts-martial. The general court-martial share was 54%, compared with 44% for 2017. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is limited to 1 year of confinement and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable discharge.
The median confinement was 1.8 years at general courts-martial and 5 months at special courts-martial. Every term longer than 1 year came from a general court-martial.
Assault and Drug Results
Assault charges ended in an assault conviction in 9 of 12 cases (75%), and the median confinement in those cases was 1.1 years. Drug charges ended in a conviction on Article 112a in 7 of 8 cases, with a median of 9 months.
These rows can overlap. A case may end with a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, and each median covers the whole sentence in the case.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 12 | 9 (75%) | 1.1 years |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 8 | 7 (7 of 8) | 9 months |
Few Contested Cases
Only 21 of the 37 records list the plea. Of those, 17 accused pleaded guilty and 4 entered a not-guilty or mixed plea. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 19%, lower than the 26% for the Navy and Marine Corps in 2017.
The contested shares were about the same at both court levels: 18% at general courts-martial and 20% at special courts-martial. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often leave out the plea, so these figures use only the records that include it.
Punitive Discharges
A punitive discharge followed 67% of enlisted convictions, about the same as the 68% for the year. There were 17 bad-conduct discharges and 5 dishonorable discharges. No convicted officers appear in the month's records.
An enlisted member sentenced without a punitive discharge can still be separated administratively later.
A Junior Group of Accused
Among the accused with rank recorded, 27 were junior enlisted members and 8 were NCOs. The accused were more junior than across the Navy and Marine Corps in 2017.
Bremerton, Washington and Camp Pendleton, California each had 6 trials. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and San Diego, California had 4 each, and Pensacola, Florida had 3. These 5 locations account for 62% of the 37 cases. Larger installations try more cases of all kinds, so high counts reflect installation size.
The Rules at the Time, and What Is Not Recorded
These trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. The later changes, including fixed panel sizes, judge-alone special courts-martial limited to 6 months of confinement with no punitive discharge, and written plea agreements, did not apply here.
The records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the terms of any plea, or misconduct handled outside a court-martial.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial with a trial date in August 2017 (37 cases), compared with the whole year.
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)
- What the Navy-Marine Corps Tried in July 2017 (previous / next)
- What the Navy-Marine Corps Tried in September 2017 (previous / next)
- The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2017 (the whole year)
- April 2018 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 43 Cases
- April 2020 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 18 Cases
- August 2019 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 34 Cases
- August 2024 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 49 Cases
- 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.