Article 92 Cases at San Diego, California, 2019–2023: 25 Courts-Martial

Trends › By Installation › San Diego, California › Article 92, 2019–2023

Based on 25 cases · 2019–2023 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

More Convictions With No Confinement

All 25 cases ended in a conviction, and confinement was part of 64% of them. 9 convictions, or 36%, had no confinement. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases in 2019–2023, the share with no confinement was 24%.

When confinement was imposed, the median was 4 months. Across the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, the median was 6 months. A quarter of the San Diego confinement sentences were 7 months or longer.

Sentence Lengths

Most sentences were short. Confinement under 6 months was 11 convictions (44%), compared with 38% service-wide. Confinement of 6 months to 1 year was only 2 convictions (8%), compared with 22%.

Sentences longer than one year were 3 of 25 convictions here (12%), compared with 16% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases overall. No sentence was 5 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.

General and Special Courts-Martial

Court level sets the maximum sentence. Only a general court-martial can impose more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year. Since 2019, a special court-martial can also be tried by a military judge alone, with a cap of six months and no punitive discharge.

San Diego tried 12 of these cases at general courts-martial and 13 at special courts-martial. The general share of 48% was higher than the 33% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases in the same period. The median confinement was 7 months at general courts-martial and 2 months at special courts-martial. Both medians are less than one year. The general court-martial median of 7 months was longer than the 6 months across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 convictions.

Guilty Pleas and Contested Cases

A contested case is one where the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. San Diego had 8 not-guilty or mixed pleas and 17 guilty pleas. Contested cases were 32% of those with a plea recorded. Navy and Marine Corps-wide, the contested share in Article 92 cases was 35%.

The contested share was different at each court level. At general courts-martial, 42% of cases were contested. At special courts-martial, 23% were.

Punitive Discharges

For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Of 24 convicted enlisted members, 11 received one: 8 bad-conduct discharges and 3 dishonorable discharges. In Navy and Marine Corps-wide Article 92 cases, the rate was 58%.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not decide whether a member stays in the service. An administrative separation can still follow, and these records do not show it.

Other Charges in Orders Violation Cases

Most orders violation cases here charged another article too: 20 of the 25 cases. Article 112a (drug) was the most common other charge, in 7 cases.

Article 131b (obstruction) was charged in 5. Article 128 (assault), Article 134 (general article), and Article 121 (larceny) were charged in 3 each. The sentence covers every charge, so the confinement figures describe the whole case, not the orders violation alone.

Rank and Cases by Year

Junior enlisted members, grades E-1 to E-4, were 54% of the accused, and NCOs were 46%. Officers were 0%. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases in these years, junior enlisted members were 59%.

The 25 cases were tried from January 2019 through August 2023: 8 in 2019, 4 in 2020, 5 in 2021, 7 in 2022, and 1 in 2023. They were 14% of the 173 courts-martial at San Diego, California over the period. The records give trial dates, not offense dates.

What the Records Cannot Show

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not show the evidence or plea terms. They do not include orders violations handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so plea counts use only the records that list one. The records also do not say which order or regulation was involved, so they cannot show the conduct behind each charge.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

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.