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A Year of Courts-Martial at Pensacola, Florida: 2022

Pensacola, Florida held 13 courts-martial in 2022. The median confinement was 2 months, compared with 6 months across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2022. A punitive discharge followed 42% of enlisted convictions, compared with 64%, and none of the discharges were dishonorable.

Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 4 min read

Trends › By Installation › Pensacola, Florida › 2022

Short answer: Pensacola, Florida held 13 courts-martial in 2022. The median confinement was 2 months, compared with 6 months across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2022. A punitive discharge followed 42% of enlisted convictions, compared with 64%, and none of the discharges were dishonorable.

Based on 13 cases · 2022 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

A 2-Month Median Confinement

There were 12 convictions, and confinement was part of 83% of them. The median confinement was 2 months, lower than the 6-month median across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 6 months or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case.

Bad-Conduct Discharges Only

A punitive discharge followed 42% of enlisted convictions. All 5 were bad-conduct discharges, and there were 0 dishonorable discharges. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, the punitive discharge share was 64%.

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

More Special Than General Courts-Martial

There were 5 general courts-martial and 8 special courts-martial. The general share, 38%, compares with 42% across the Navy and Marine Corps. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

By rank, 7 accused were junior enlisted members and 6 were NCOs. No officers were tried. This group was more senior than the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.

Pleas

Guilty pleas came in 9 cases, and 4 cases were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share, 31%, was about the same as the 33% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Of the 4 contested cases that reached a verdict, 1 ended in a full acquittal.

Charges

All 13 records list the charges. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 3 cases (23%). The Article 120 share was higher than the 9% across the Navy and Marine Corps, and the Article 128 share was the same as the 23% there.

Article 121 (larceny) appeared in 2 cases (15%), compared with 7%. Drug charges under Article 112a also appeared in 2 cases, lower than the 22% across the Navy and Marine Corps. A case with 3 articles appears in 3 rows of the table.

UCMJ ArticleCasesShare hereShare, the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole
Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault323%9%
Art. 128 Assault323%23%
Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances215%22%
Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation215%18%
Art. 134 General article215%20%
Art. 121 Larceny215%7%
Art. 107 False official statements18%6%
Art. 86 AWOL18%6%

Jacksonville and San Diego

In 2022, Jacksonville, Florida tried 23 cases and San Diego, California tried 27. Each had a median confinement of 5 months, longer than the 2 months at Pensacola. Their punitive discharge rates, 45% and 44%, were about the same as Pensacola's 42%. San Diego's contested share was 59%, compared with 35% at Jacksonville and 31% at Pensacola.

InstallationCasesContestedFull acquittals (decided contested)Median confinementPunitive discharge (enlisted)
Pensacola, Florida1331%1 of 42 months42%
Jacksonville, Florida2335%3 of 85 months45%
San Diego, California2759%2 of 165 months44%

Limits of the Records

These records cover only what reached a courtroom. Cases resolved by nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action are not included, and the records do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. They give trial dates, not offense dates.

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 2022 (13 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.

Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Pensacola, Florida, 2022

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.

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