January 2018 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 52 Cases
The records list 52 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from January 2018. The median confinement was 1 year, compared with 7 months for both services across 2018. Article 82 (soliciting) appeared in 14% of cases with charges listed, compared with 4% for the year.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Year › January 2018
Short answer: The records list 52 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from January 2018. The median confinement was 1 year, compared with 7 months for both services across 2018. Article 82 (soliciting) appeared in 14% of cases with charges listed, compared with 4% for the year.
More Cases and Longer Sentences
January 2018 had 47 convictions, and 42 of them included confinement. The median confinement was 1 year, higher than the 7-month median for the Navy and Marine Corps in 2018. A quarter of the terms were 3 years or longer.
Long sentences were more common than in the year. Of the 47 convictions, 18 (38%) included more than one year of confinement, compared with 30% for the year. Terms between 1 and 5 years made up 28%, compared with 20%. Another 5 convictions (11%) were 5 years or more.
Short sentences were less common: 23% of convictions were under 6 months, compared with 32% for 2018. All of these are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge of conviction.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 11% | 15% |
| Under 6 months | 11 | 23% | 32% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 13 | 28% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 13 | 28% | 20% |
| 5 years or more | 5 | 11% | 9% |
Most Cases at the General Level
General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 28 of the 52 cases (54%). Special courts-martial, capped at one year of confinement, made up the other 24.
At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 2.7 years. At special courts-martial, it was 6 months. All 18 sentences longer than one year, and every dishonorable discharge in the month, came from general courts-martial, because a special court-martial cannot impose either.
More Soliciting and General Article Charges
Charges are listed for 51 cases, and the shares below use those cases. Article 82 (soliciting) appeared in 7 cases (14%), compared with 4% for the year. Article 134 (the general article) appeared in 22%, compared with 15%.
Article 128 (assault) was the most common charge, at 37%, compared with its 34% yearly share. Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) appeared in 22%, compared with its 26% share.
Some serious charges appeared less often than usual. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) appeared in 8% of cases, compared with 16% for 2018. Article 80 (attempts) also appeared in 8%, compared with 12%. Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 12% and Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) in 10%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 19 | 37% | 34% |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 22% | 15% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 22% | 26% |
| Art. 82 Soliciting | 7 | 14% | 4% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 6 | 12% | 11% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 5 | 10% | 10% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 4 | 8% | 12% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 4 | 8% | 16% |
Conviction Rates by Charge
All 11 cases charging Article 134 ended in a conviction on that article, and the median confinement was 3 years. In 10 of 11 drug cases (91%), the accused was convicted under Article 112a, and the median was 11 months.
Assault had the lowest conviction rate among these charges, 15 of 19 (79%), and the median confinement was 5 months. Since one case can include both a conviction and an acquittal on different articles, these rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 19 | 15 (79%) | 5 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 11 (100%) | 3 years |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 10 (91%) | 11 months |
Discharges
Of 45 convicted enlisted members, 31 received a punitive discharge: 21 bad-conduct and 10 dishonorable. The share was 69%, about the same as the 66% for the year.
The month includes 2 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 was dismissed, the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation.
Few Pleas on Record
Only 18 of the 52 records list a plea. Among them, 13 accused pleaded guilty, and 5 pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 28%, the same as the 28% for 2018. Of the 5 contested cases that reached a verdict, 2 ended in a full acquittal.
Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often leave out the plea, so these shares are based on a small part of the month's cases.
January 2017 to January 2018
The number of cases rose from 36 to 52. The median confinement went from 9 months to 1 year. The general court-martial share rose from 36% to 54%.
The contested share fell from 33% to 28%. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members fell from 79% to 69%. Convictions with confinement went from 87% to 89%. These are small groups, so the comparison shows direction only.
| January 2017 | January 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 36 | 52 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 33% | 28% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 4 of 5 | 2 of 5 |
| Convictions with confinement | 87% | 89% |
| Median confinement | 9 months | 1 year |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 79% | 69% |
| General courts-martial | 36% | 54% |
Rank and Location
Among the accused with rank recorded, 34 were junior enlisted, 13 were NCOs, and 2 were officers. That mix was more junior than the year as a whole.
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and Camp Pendleton, California, had 9 cases each. Okinawa, Japan, and Norfolk, Virginia, had 7 each. Bremerton, Washington, had 4. These five account for 69% of the month's cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.
Context and Limits
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, after these trials. Its fixed panel sizes, judge-alone special courts-martial, and written plea agreements did not apply here. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not include the evidence, plea terms, nonjudicial punishment, or administrative separations.
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 January 2018 (52 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 December 2017 (previous / next)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, February 2018: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- The Navy-Marine Corps Court-Martial Year, 2018 (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.