A Year of Courts-Martial at Pensacola, Florida: 2017
Pensacola, Florida held 12 courts-martial in 2017, and the accused pleaded guilty in 11 of them. Only 8% of cases were contested, compared with 26% across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2017. The median confinement was 8 months, the same as across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Installation › Pensacola, Florida › 2017
Short answer: Pensacola, Florida held 12 courts-martial in 2017, and the accused pleaded guilty in 11 of them. Only 8% of cases were contested, compared with 26% across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2017. The median confinement was 8 months, the same as across the Navy and Marine Corps.
Guilty Pleas in 11 of 12 Cases
Of the 12 accused, 11 pleaded guilty and 1 contested at least one charge. A contested case is one with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share of 8% was lower than the 26% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
The 1 contested case that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal (1 of 1).
Sentences After Conviction
Confinement was part of 91% of the 11 convictions. The median confinement was 8 months, and the median across the Navy and Marine Corps was also 8 months. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 2.5 years or longer.
Sentences here are as adjudged at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.
Discharges and a Dismissal
Among 10 enlisted members convicted, 7 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (70%), about as often as across the Navy and Marine Corps (68%). 1 of the 7 was a dishonorable discharge.
1 officer or warrant officer was convicted and was dismissed. A dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Assault Was the Most Common Charge
Charge lists cover 11 of the 12 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 5 cases (45%), compared with 37% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child), Article 134 (general article), Article 80 (attempts), and Article 112a (drug offenses) each appeared in 2 cases (18%).
The Article 112a share was lower than the 31% across the Navy and Marine Corps. The Article 120b share was higher than the 10% there. A case with 3 articles appears in 3 rows of the table.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 5 | 45% | 37% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 18% | 10% |
| Art. 134 General article | 2 | 18% | 13% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 2 | 18% | 10% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 2 | 18% | 31% |
| Art. 82 Soliciting | 1 | 9% | 3% |
| Art. 115 Malingering | 1 | 9% | 2% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 1 | 9% | 16% |
Rank and Court Level
By rank, 6 accused were junior enlisted members, 5 were NCOs, and 1 was an officer. This group was more senior than all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2017.
General courts-martial made up 7 of the 12 cases (58%), compared with 44% across the Navy and Marine Corps. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Twentynine Palms and Pearl Harbor
Twentynine Palms, California tried 20 cases in 2017 and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii tried 21. Both had a median confinement of 6 months, compared with 8 months at Pensacola. Pensacola had the lowest punitive discharge rate of these installations, at 70%, compared with 80% at Twentynine Palms and 72% at Pearl Harbor.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pensacola, Florida | 12 | 8% | 1 of 1 | 8 months | 70% |
| Twentynine Palms, California | 20 | — | — | 6 months | 80% |
| Pearl Harbor, Hawaii | 21 | 19% | 2 of 4 | 6 months | 72% |
Rules and Record Limits
These trials came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, so later changes such as fixed panel sizes and written plea agreements did not apply. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea.
The records do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Pensacola, Florida with a trial date in 2017 (12 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
- Pensacola, Florida: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What Pensacola, Florida Tried in 2016 (previous / next)
- Pensacola, Florida in 2018: 11 Courts-Martial, Year in Review (previous / next)
- Pensacola, Florida, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 74 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.