Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, 2019–2023: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had 39 courts-martial from 2019–2023, and MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina had 34. Article 80, attempts, was charged in 33% of Pearl Harbor cases with charges listed, compared with 3% at Cherry Point.
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Trends › By Installation › Pearl Harbor, Hawaii › vs. MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina
Short answer: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii had 39 courts-martial from 2019–2023, and MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina had 34. Article 80, attempts, was charged in 33% of Pearl Harbor cases with charges listed, compared with 3% at Cherry Point. 74% of convicted enlisted members at Pearl Harbor received a punitive discharge, compared with 54% at Cherry Point.
Attempt Charges and Other Articles
The charge lists cover 33 of the 39 Pearl Harbor cases. A case with three articles counts under all three. Article 80, which covers attempts to commit another offense, appeared in 11 cases (33%). At Cherry Point, it appeared in 3% of cases.
Article 134, the general article, was the most common charge at Pearl Harbor, in 12 cases (36%), compared with 20% at Cherry Point. Article 128, assault, appeared in 33% of cases, compared with 20%. Article 120b, rape and sexual assault of a child, appeared in 21%, compared with 10%.
Two charges were less common at Pearl Harbor. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, appeared in 6% of cases, compared with 23% at Cherry Point. Article 112a, the drug article, appeared in 12%, compared with 20%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 36% | 20% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 11 | 33% | 20% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 11 | 33% | 3% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 7 | 21% | 10% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 5 | 15% | 3% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 12% | 20% |
| Art. 120c Other sexual misconduct | 3 | 9% | 0% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 2 | 6% | 23% |
Punitive Discharges Were More Common at Pearl Harbor
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member, or a dismissal for an officer. 74% of enlisted convictions at Pearl Harbor ended with one: 18 bad-conduct discharges and 5 dishonorable discharges. At Cherry Point the share was 54%.
3 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Pearl Harbor records, and 1 was dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
A More Senior Group of Accused
NCOs were 59% of the Pearl Harbor accused. Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 32%, and officers were 8%. At Cherry Point, junior enlisted members were 59% of the accused.
General courts-martial, the level that can impose long confinement and a dishonorable discharge, were 56% of Pearl Harbor cases (22 of 39). The other 17 were special courts-martial. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
How Much Confinement?
34 Pearl Harbor cases ended in a conviction, and 85% of those sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 9 months, compared with 1 year at Cherry Point. A quarter of the Pearl Harbor sentences were 1.5 years or longer.
Sentences of more than one year were 10 of 34 Pearl Harbor convictions (29%), about the same as the 27% at Cherry Point. No confinement was less common at Pearl Harbor: 15% of convictions, compared with 43%. Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were 32% at Pearl Harbor and 17% at Cherry Point.
The median confinement was 1.2 years in Pearl Harbor general courts-martial and 4 months in special courts-martial. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 5 | 15% | 43% |
| Under 6 months | 8 | 24% | 13% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 11 | 32% | 17% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 8 | 24% | 27% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 6% | 0% |
Conviction on the Top Charges
All 12 cases charging Article 134 ended in a conviction on that article (100%), with a median confinement of 1 year. All 11 cases charging Article 128 did too (100%), with a median of 10 months.
Article 80 ended in a conviction on that article in 10 of 11 cases (91%). When the conviction included Article 80, the median confinement was 1.5 years. One case can include several of these articles, so the rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 12 | 12 (100%) | 1 year |
| Art. 128 Assault | 11 | 11 (100%) | 10 months |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 11 | 10 (91%) | 1.5 years |
Pleas and Contested Verdicts
37 of the 39 Pearl Harbor records list the plea. 28 accused pleaded guilty and 9 contested at least one charge. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share was 24%, compared with 41% at Cherry Point.
The contested share was 25% in general courts-martial and 24% in special courts-martial. Cases charging Article 134 ended in a guilty plea 92% of the time (11 of 12), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 128 did so 64% of the time (7 of 11). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the case.
Of the 9 contested Pearl Harbor cases that reached a verdict, 3 ended in a full acquittal. At Cherry Point, 0 of 7 did. These are small counts.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | 39 | 24% | 3 of 9 | 9 months | 74% |
| MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina | 34 | 41% | 0 of 7 | 1 year | 54% |
Case Counts by Year
The Pearl Harbor records run from January 2019 to November 2023. There were 11 cases in 2019, 7 in 2020, 2 in 2021, 13 in 2022, and 6 in 2023. The two installations tried a similar number of cases, so the comparison uses shares, not counts.
What the Records Cannot Show
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms, and they do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum, so plea counts use only the records that list them.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (39) and MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina (34) with trial dates in 2019–2023. Each figure for Pearl Harbor, Hawaii is set beside the same figure for MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina.
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
- Pearl Harbor, Hawaii: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Camp Pendleton, California: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2013–2018
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Okinawa, Japan: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2019–2023
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Camp Pendleton, California and San Diego, California, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Comparing Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Mayport, Florida: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2013–2018
- Comparing Camp Pendleton, California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Comparing Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 2019–2023
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.