October 2025 at Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: 33 Cases

Trends › By Year › October 2025

Based on 33 cases · October 2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Sentences Slightly Longer Than the Year

Of the 30 convictions, 70% included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with a median of 4 months for the Navy and Marine Corps across 2025. A quarter of the sentences with confinement were 1 year or longer. These are adjudged sentences: the sentence announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, covering every charge in a case.

Most of the difference was in the middle range. Sentences from 6 months to 1 year made up 23% of convictions, compared with 16% for the year. Sentences under 6 months made up 30%, compared with 37%. 9 convictions had no confinement (30%), about the same as the 31% for 2025.

Few Long Sentences

Sentences longer than one year came in 5 of 30 convictions (17%), about the same as the 16% for the year. Of those, 2 were 5 years or more (7%), and 3 were more than 1 year and under 5 years (10%).

Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement. At the 15 general courts-martial, 85% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 1 year. At the 18 special courts-martial, 59% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 2 months.

Drug Charges Were More Common

All 33 records list their charges, and a case is counted under each article it charges. Article 112a (wrongful use, possession of controlled substances) appeared in 5 cases (15%), compared with 10% for 2025. Article 128b (domestic violence) also appeared in 5 cases (15%), compared with 11%.

Article 92 (failure to obey order or regulation) and Article 134 (general article) were the most common charges, in 8 cases each (24%). For Article 92, that was the same as the year. For the general article, the share for the year was 21%. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 18% of cases, compared with 16%. Article 81 (conspiracy) appeared in 9%, compared with 6%.

Convictions on Orders and General Article Charges

Article 92 and Article 134 cases each ended in a conviction on that article in 7 of 8 cases. The median confinement was 57 days for Article 92 convictions and 1 year for Article 134 convictions. Each median is based on the whole sentence in those cases. The rows overlap when a case includes both articles.

Contested Cases and Verdicts

Of the cases with a recorded plea, 12 were not-guilty or mixed pleas and 21 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 36%, about the same as the 37% for 2025. A contested case is one in which the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge.

Of 12 contested cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal (25%). Another 3 ended in a partial acquittal (25%), meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. The full acquittal rate was about the same as the 27% for the year.

Discharges and Officers

Of 26 convicted enlisted members, 13 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (50%). That was higher than the 46% for 2025. Only 2 of those 13 were dishonorable discharges. The month had 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 was dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later.

Rank and Court Level

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 69% of the accused. NCOs made up 22%, and officers made up 9%. For all of 2025, junior enlisted members made up 62%. General courts-martial, which can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, made up 45% of the month (15 of 33).

October 2024 and October 2025

October 2024 had 42 cases, and October 2025 had 33. The median confinement went from 9 months to 6 months. Punitive discharges for enlisted members went from 67% to 50%. The contested share went from 28% to 36%, and general courts-martial went from 38% to 45%. Convictions with confinement were about the same, 71% and 70%. Full acquittals went from 3 of 11 to 3 of 12.

These are small groups, so the comparison shows direction rather than exact change.

Rules and Records

Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. The records do not give offense dates, so they cannot show which rules applied to each case or whether the changes affected these numbers.

Norfolk, Virginia, tried 6 cases, and Quantico, Virginia, tried 5. Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, San Diego, California, and Okinawa, Japan, tried 3 each. Together these five account for 61% of the month. Larger installations try more cases of every kind. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, the evidence, and plea terms are not in these records.

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.