Article 112a Cases at Norfolk, Virginia, 2019–2023: 51 Courts-Martial

Trends › By Installation › Norfolk, Virginia › Article 112a, 2019–2023

Based on 51 cases · 2019–2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Contested Drug Cases Ended in a Full Acquittal More Often

This post covers every drug court-martial at Norfolk, Virginia from 2019 through 2023: 51 cases in all. Few of these cases were contested. Of those that were, a high share ended in a full acquittal.

Of 11 contested cases that reached a verdict, 5 ended in a full acquittal. That 45% full-acquittal rate is higher than the 27% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 112a cases. Another 3 cases ended in a partial acquittal, in which the accused is found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. With only 11 contested cases, each verdict changes the rate by a large amount.

Most Accused Pleaded Guilty

Of the 50 records that list a plea, 39 were guilty pleas and 11 were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The 22% contested share is about the same as the 20% across Navy and Marine Corps drug cases.

With 39 guilty pleas in the group, most of the 46 convictions came from a guilty plea, not a contested verdict. The sentence figures below mostly describe cases that ended in a guilty plea to at least one charge.

Most Sentences Were Short

Of 46 convictions, 38 included confinement. The median confinement was 4 months, about the same as the 5 months elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of sentences were 9 months or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.

Sentences under 6 months made up 52% of convictions, compared with 45% service-wide. There was no confinement in 8 convictions (17%), compared with 11%. Longer sentences were less common. Sentences of 6 months to 1 year made up 20%, compared with 27%. Sentences of more than 1 year and under 5 years made up 11%, compared with 15%. No convictions (0) had a sentence of 5 years or more.

Mostly Special Courts-Martial

General courts-martial made up 18% of these cases (9 of 51). Special courts-martial heard the rest. A general court-martial can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge.

That one-year cap applied to most of these cases. Sentences longer than one year were adjudged in 5 of 46 convictions (11%), less often than the 16% elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps.

Punitive Discharges at the Service Rate

A punitive discharge followed 64% of enlisted convictions, the same rate as across the Navy and Marine Corps. Almost all were bad-conduct discharges: 27 bad-conduct and 1 dishonorable.

The records list 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, who was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not track.

Conspiracy, Desertion, and Other Charges in the Same Cases

Article 112a was the only charge in 16 of the 51 cases. The other cases most often included Article 81 (conspiracy) in 12 cases, Article 85 (desertion) in 9, Article 86 (AWOL) in 8, Article 87 (missing movement) in 6, and Article 82 (solicitation) in 4.

Absence offenses, such as desertion, AWOL, and missing movement, were charged together with drug offenses in many of these cases. A sentence covers every charge, so the confinement figures include those offenses too. The sentence data cannot separate a drug case with a desertion or conspiracy charge from a case with a drug charge alone.

Rank and Cases by Year

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 70% of the accused. NCOs made up 28%, and officers made up 2%. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, junior enlisted members were 79%, so this group was somewhat more senior.

The cases were tried from January 2019 to August 2023: 9 in 2019, 12 in 2020, 15 in 2021, 13 in 2022, and 2 in 2023. They made up 25% of the 205 courts-martial at Norfolk in those years.

What the Records Do Not Show

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence, such as test results, or the plea terms. Drug cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so the plea counts use only records that list one.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 112a on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Federal Law Has No Crime of Drug Use: How Article 112a Cases Compare · Drug Distribution and Importation: Federal vs. Court-Martial Sentences, 2016–2025

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.