A Year of Courts-Martial at Norfolk, Virginia: 2017
Norfolk, Virginia tried 39 courts-martial in 2017, fewer than in earlier years. Assault under Article 128 was charged in 51% of cases, compared with 37% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Norfolk, Virginia › 2017
Short answer: Norfolk, Virginia tried 39 courts-martial in 2017, fewer than in earlier years. Assault under Article 128 was charged in 51% of cases, compared with 37% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Full acquittals came in 42% of contested cases that reached a verdict (5 of 12), lower than the 54% service-wide.
Assault Was the Most Common Charge
Of 37 cases with charge lists, 19 included Article 128 (assault). That is 51%, compared with 37% in all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2017. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) was also more common than the service rate: 12 cases, or 32%, compared with 19%.
Drug charges under Article 112a were about the same as the service: 30%, compared with 31%. Article 107 (false official statements) was charged in 11% of cases, the same as the service. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) and Article 121 (larceny) were less common than elsewhere, each at 5%. A case with several articles counts under each.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Navy and Marine Corps-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 19 | 51% | 37% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 12 | 32% | 19% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 30% | 31% |
| Art. 134 General article | 6 | 16% | 13% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 4 | 11% | 11% |
| Art. 131b Obstruction, numbered since 2019 | 2 | 5% | 4% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 5% | 10% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 2 | 5% | 9% |
Some Sentences Were Several Years Long
Of 34 cases that ended in a conviction on at least one charge, 31 included confinement (91%). The median confinement was 10 months, compared with 8 months across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of sentences were 4 years or longer.
Sentences longer than one year were adjudged in 13 of 34 convictions (38%), compared with 31% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. The largest difference was at the top: 6 convictions (18%) had sentences of 5 years or more, compared with 10% service-wide. The median for an Article 120 conviction was 4 years. For an Article 128 conviction, it was 1.6 years. For a drug conviction, it was 4 months.
All of these are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one includes every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 3 | 9% | 10% |
| Under 6 months | 13 | 38% | 37% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 5 | 15% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 7 | 21% | 20% |
| 5 years or more | 6 | 18% | 10% |
A Large Difference Between Court Levels
The 19 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 4 years, and 53% were contested. The 20 special courts-martial had a 4-month median, and 11% were contested. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
General courts-martial made up 49% of the cases. They can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge.
Contested Cases and Verdicts
The plea appears in 38 of 39 records: 26 guilty pleas and 12 contested cases. A contested case has a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The 32% contested share was higher than the 26% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Records from before 2020 often omit the plea, so only records that list one are counted.
Of the 12 contested cases with a verdict, 5 ended in a full acquittal. The rate was 42%, compared with 54% service-wide. No contested case ended in a partial acquittal.
Pleas and Convictions by Charge
Drug cases ended in a guilty plea most often: 82% of cases charging Article 112a (9 of 11). Article 120 cases ended in a guilty plea 42% of the time (5 of 12). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or not guilty.
A conviction on the charged article followed in 16 of 19 Article 128 cases (84%), 9 of 11 Article 112a cases (82%), and 9 of 12 Article 120 cases (75%). These rows overlap because one case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 19 | 16 (84%) | 1.6 years |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 12 | 9 (75%) | 4 years |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 11 | 9 (82%) | 4 months |
Punitive Discharges for Enlisted Members and Officers
A punitive discharge, either bad-conduct or dishonorable, followed 59% of enlisted convictions: 9 bad-conduct and 8 dishonorable. The rate for the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole was 68%. Of 3 convicted officers or warrant officers, 2 were dismissed. An administrative separation is still possible after a sentence without a punitive discharge.
2017 Compared With 2016
Cases fell from 55 to 39. The contested share went from 31% to 32%. Full acquittals went from 9 of 17 to 5 of 12. Median confinement went from 9 months to 10 months.
Punitive discharges for enlisted members fell from 67% to 59%. General courts-martial fell from 64% to 49% of cases. With groups this small, a few cases can change each figure, so these changes show direction, not precise size.
| 2016 | 2017 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 55 | 39 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | 31% | 32% |
| Full acquittals (decided contested) | 9 of 17 | 5 of 12 |
| Convictions with confinement | 96% | 91% |
| Median confinement | 9 months | 10 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 67% | 59% |
| General courts-martial | 64% | 49% |
Rank and Comparable Installations
The accused were 24 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 9 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 4 officers or warrant officers. That mix is similar to the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, where 66% were junior enlisted.
San Diego, California (45 cases) and Okinawa, Japan (30 cases) tried a similar number of cases. At San Diego, 28% of cases were contested, full acquittals came in 8 of 11, and the median confinement was 7 months. At Okinawa, the median was 2 years, and the punitive discharge rate was 93%, compared with 59% here.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norfolk, Virginia | 39 | 32% | 5 of 12 | 10 months | 59% |
| San Diego, California | 45 | 28% | 8 of 11 | 7 months | 56% |
| Okinawa, Japan | 30 | 0 of 3 | — | 2 years | 93% |
What the Records Do Not Show
These cases were tried under the rules in place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. The records cover only court-martial outcomes. They give trial dates, not offense dates, and do not show evidence, plea terms, or nonjudicial punishment.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Norfolk, Virginia with a trial date in 2017 (39 cases).
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
- Norfolk, Virginia: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- Norfolk, Virginia in 2016: 55 Courts-Martial, Year in Review (previous / next)
- What Norfolk, Virginia Tried in 2018 (previous / next)
- Norfolk, Virginia, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 308 Cases (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020
- 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.