July 2022 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 28 Cases

Trends › By Year › July 2022

Based on 28 cases · July 2022 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Cases Were Contested

A case counts as contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, whether that is a full not-guilty plea or a mixed one. Of the 28 records, 26 list the plea: 16 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 10 were guilty pleas.

The contested share was 62%, higher than the 33% across the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2022. In most months, most cases end in a guilty plea. In July 2022, most cases were contested.

Full Acquittals in 5 of 16 Contested Cases

Full acquittals were also more common than in the year. Of the 16 contested cases that reached a verdict, 31% ended in a full acquittal, higher than the 20% for the year.

Another 4 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal, meaning the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Those cases still count as convictions in the sentencing figures below.

Orders Violations Were Most Common

Charges are listed in 26 of the 28 records, and each article is counted once per case, so a single case can appear under several articles. Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation) was the most common charge, in 7 cases (27%), higher than its 18% share for the year.

Article 120 (rape and sexual assault), Article 128 (assault), and Article 112a (wrongful use, possession of controlled substances) each appeared in 4 cases (15%). For Article 120, that was higher than the annual 9%. Assault and drug charges were lower than their annual shares of 23% and 22%.

Other articles appeared in 2 cases each (8%): Article 134 (general article), Article 82 (soliciting), Article 131b (obstructing justice), and Article 90 (willfully disobeying superior officer). The general article was less common than its 20% annual share.

Convictions and Confinement

Of the 28 cases, 21 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 14 of those sentences included confinement (67%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the median for the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2022.

These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in its case.

Fewer Long Terms, More Sentences With No Confinement

Only 3 of the 21 convictions (14%) included more than one year of confinement, compared with 20% for the year. Another 7 convictions (33%) included no confinement, compared with 17% across 2022.

Very long sentences were more common than usual: 2 convictions (10%) were 5 years or more, compared with 4% for the year. Terms of more than 1 year but under 5 years made up just 1 conviction (5%).

General Versus Special Courts-Martial

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and can give a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable one.

General courts-martial made up 39% of the month's cases (11 of 28). At that level, 6 of 7 convictions included confinement, and the median was 1.1 years. At the 17 special courts-martial, 57% of convictions did, and the median was 2 months.

Discharges for Enlisted Members

A punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 19 convicted enlisted members, 10 received one: 8 bad-conduct and 2 dishonorable. The share was 53%, compared with 64% for the Navy and Marine Corps for all of 2022.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later, which these records do not track.

How July 2022 Compares With July 2021

July 2021 had 30 cases, and July 2022 had 28. The contested share rose from 38% to 62%. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict went from 0 of 11 to 5 of 16.

Sentence measures fell. Convictions with confinement fell from 87% to 67%. The median confinement went from 11 months to 6 months. Punitive discharges for convicted enlisted members fell from 59% to 53%. The general court-martial share fell from 57% to 39%. With groups this small, a few cases can change these numbers, so the changes show direction, not precise size.

Who Was Tried, and Where

Among the accused with rank recorded, 15 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 8 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 2 were officers or warrant officers. That mix is more senior than the year as a whole, when 65% were junior enlisted.

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, had 7 of the cases. Camp Pendleton, California, and Norfolk, Virginia, had 4 each. Quantico, Virginia, and Okinawa, Japan, had 2 each. Those five locations account for 68% of the month's cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so the counts say little about any one base.

What the Records Do Not Show

These figures cover only cases that reached a court-martial. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and matters closed without action do not appear. The records do not describe the evidence or any plea terms. They give trial dates, not offense dates.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.