21 Sexual Assault Courts-Martial at Washington, D.C., 2013–2018: What the Records Show

Trends › By Installation › Washington, D.C. › Article 120, 2013–2018

Based on 21 cases · 2013–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Most Cases Were Contested

This page covers only courts-martial charging Article 120, the rape and sexual assault article, at Washington, D.C. from March 2013 through September 2018. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The plea can be fully not guilty or mixed.

17 of the 21 cases were contested, and 4 ended in a guilty plea. The contested share was 81%, compared with 70% across Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases in the same years.

Full Acquittals Were Less Common Than Service-Wide

17 contested cases reached a verdict. 6 ended in a full acquittal, a rate of 35%. Across Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases, the full-acquittal rate in contested cases was 53%.

2 more cases ended in a partial acquittal. In a partial acquittal, the accused is found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.

Most of the Accused Were NCOs

NCOs were 63% of the accused. Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 26%, and officers were 11%. Across Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases, junior enlisted members were 48% of the accused.

This group is more senior than the service as a whole. The records do not explain why. For a convicted officer, the equivalent of a punitive discharge is a dismissal. The discharge figures below cover only convicted enlisted members.

Median Confinement Was 2 Years

15 of the 21 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. 13 of those sentences included confinement (87%). The median confinement was 2 years, shorter than the 3-year median across Navy and Marine Corps Article 120 cases in 2013–2018.

A quarter of the sentences were 6.5 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences. They are the sentences announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.

Punitive Discharges

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. 10 of the 13 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge: 3 bad-conduct discharges and 7 dishonorable discharges. In the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, the share was 82%.

Only a general court-martial can adjudge a dishonorable discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. These records do not include administrative separations.

Nearly All Were General Courts-Martial

General courts-martial heard 20 of the 21 cases (95%). A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge or dismissal. A special court-martial can adjudge no more than one year of confinement and no dishonorable discharge.

Assault Was Charged in Most Cases

Only 3 of the 21 cases charged Article 120 by itself. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 60 of 426 Article 120 cases did. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 17 cases, the most common other charge. Article 120b (child sexual abuse) appeared in 4, and Article 134 (the general article) appeared in 3.

A sentence covers every charge in the case. The confinement and discharge figures on this page describe cases that often included more than one offense.

Cases by Year

There was 1 case in 2013, 6 in 2014, 4 in 2015, 5 in 2016, 1 in 2017, and 4 in 2018. The 21 cases were 28% of the 76 courts-martial at Washington, D.C. in 2013–2018. With so few cases, a few cases can change any percentage on this page. The yearly counts are small, so this page reports the period as a whole.

The Law in Force

All of these trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases.

Article 120 was rewritten in 2012 and amended again for offenses on or after January 1, 2019. Each case is charged under the version in force when the offense happened.

What the Records Do Not Show

The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea, so the plea counts use only the records that list it. Cases handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 120 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: UCMJ change timeline.

Compare: federal court. Sexual Abuse of an Adult: Federal Cases vs. Article 120 Courts-Martial

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.