What the Navy-Marine Corps Tried in December 2017
Navy and Marine Corps records list 35 courts-martial in December 2017. Sentences were shorter than in the year as a whole: the median confinement was 5 months, compared with 8 months for both services across 2017.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Year › December 2017
Short answer: Navy and Marine Corps records list 35 courts-martial in December 2017. Sentences were shorter than in the year as a whole: the median confinement was 5 months, compared with 8 months for both services across 2017. Of convicted enlisted members, 57% received a punitive discharge, compared with 68% for the year.
A Month of Shorter Terms
December 2017 had 31 convictions, and 27 included confinement. The median confinement was 5 months, lower than the 8 months for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2017. A quarter of the terms were 9 months or more.
Terms under 6 months made up 48% of convictions, compared with 37% for the year. Only 5 of 31 convictions (16%) included more than one year, compared with 31% for 2017. Of those, 3 were between 1 and 5 years, and 2 were 5 years or more. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 4 | 13% | 10% |
| Under 6 months | 15 | 48% | 37% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 7 | 23% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 3 | 10% | 20% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 6% | 10% |
General Courts-Martial Without Long Sentences
Of the 35 cases, 16 were general courts-martial (46%, compared with 44% for the year) and 19 were special courts-martial. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is limited to one year of confinement and can adjudge a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable one.
At general courts-martial, 92% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 8 months. At special courts-martial, 83% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 3 months.
Fewer Punitive Discharges
Of 28 convicted enlisted members, 16 received a punitive discharge: 13 bad-conduct and 3 dishonorable. The share was 57%, compared with 68% for both services in 2017. The month also had 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 was dismissed, the officer form of a punitive discharge.
A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation. A dishonorable discharge requires a general court-martial, while a bad-conduct discharge can come from either level.
Drug Charges Were Most Common
Charges are listed for 34 of the 35 cases, and one case can count under several articles. Article 112a drug offenses appeared in 11 cases (32%), about the same as the yearly 31%. Article 128 assault appeared in 10 cases (29%), lower than the 37% for 2017.
Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in only 3 cases (9%), compared with 19% for the year. Most other articles were about the same as the year, including Article 92 orders violations at 12% and Article 134 at 12%. Article 82 soliciting appeared in 2 cases (6%, compared with 3%).
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2017 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 32% | 31% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 10 | 29% | 37% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 4 | 12% | 16% |
| Art. 134 General article | 4 | 12% | 13% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 3 | 9% | 9% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 3 | 9% | 11% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 3 | 9% | 19% |
| Art. 82 Soliciting | 2 | 6% | 3% |
Convictions on Drug and Assault Charges
In 10 of 11 drug cases (91%), the accused was convicted under Article 112a. In 9 of 10 assault cases (90%), the accused was convicted of assault. Both groups had a median confinement of 5 months.
One case can produce a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows can overlap, and each median includes every charge in the case.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 10 (91%) | 5 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 10 | 9 (90%) | 5 months |
Pleas Where Recorded
Only 18 of the 35 records list the plea. Among those, 14 accused pleaded guilty, and 4 pleaded not guilty to at least one charge, which makes a case contested. The contested share was 22%, compared with 26% for the year.
Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so these figures rest only on records that include it.
A More Senior Group of Accused
Among the accused with rank recorded, 20 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 11 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 3 were officers or warrant officers. That mix was more senior than the year, when 66% were junior enlisted.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had 5 trials. Camp Pendleton, California, and Yokosuka, Japan, had 4 each, and Bremerton, Washington, and San Diego, California, had 3 each. Those five places account for 54% of the cases, and larger installations try more cases of every kind.
Before the 2019 Changes
These trials came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law later set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those rules applied to the cases here.
The records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences, but not the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled outside a court-martial. They also record when a case was tried, not when the alleged offense took place, so a December 2017 trial may concern conduct from much earlier.
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 December 2017 (35 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)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, November 2017: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- January 2018 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 52 Cases (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 2017 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 37 Cases
- August 2019 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 34 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.