What Was Tried at Washington, D.C., 2013–2018? 76 Courts-Martial
Washington, D.C. held 76 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013 to 2018. 39% of cases with a recorded plea were contested, compared with 29% elsewhere in the service. Assault (Article 128) was charged in 47% of cases, compared with 37%.
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Trends › By Installation › Washington, D.C. › 2013–2018
Short answer: Washington, D.C. held 76 Navy and Marine Corps courts-martial from 2013 to 2018. 39% of cases with a recorded plea were contested, compared with 29% elsewhere in the service. Assault (Article 128) was charged in 47% of cases, compared with 37%.
Cases Were Contested More Often Than Service-Wide
75 of the 76 records list a plea: 46 guilty pleas and 29 not-guilty or mixed pleas. A not-guilty or mixed plea makes a case contested. The contested share was 39%, compared with 29% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps.
The share of guilty pleas differed by charge. Cases charging Article 107 (false official statements) ended in a guilty plea 73% of the time (8 of 11), the highest among the most common charges. Cases charging Article 120 ended in a guilty plea 19% of the time (4 of 21). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested.
Results in Contested Cases
29 contested cases reached a verdict. 13 ended in a full acquittal, a rate of 45%. That is about the same as the 46% service figure. 3 more ended in a partial acquittal, meaning the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another.
Rank and Court Level
NCOs (E-5 to E-9) were the largest group, with 39 of the accused. There were 25 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 10 officers or warrant officers. Across the service, 56% of the accused were junior enlisted, so this group was more senior.
General courts-martial heard 43 of 76 cases (57%), compared with 44% service-wide. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge or dismissal. 49% of general courts-martial were contested, compared with 25% of the 33 special courts-martial.
Assault and Sexual Assault Were Charged More Often
74 of the 76 records list the charges, and each article counts once per case. Assault (Article 128) appeared in 35 cases (47%), compared with 37% service-wide. Sexual assault (Article 120) appeared in 28%, compared with 22%. False official statements (Article 107) appeared in 16%, compared with 12%.
Drug offenses (Article 112a) were charged less often: 12% of cases, compared with 23% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Larceny, the general article, child sexual offenses, and AWOL were each within 1 point of their service shares.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the whole Navy and Marine Corps docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 35 | 47% | 37% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 21 | 28% | 22% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 12 | 16% | 12% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 9 | 12% | 23% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 9 | 12% | 13% |
| Art. 134 General article | 9 | 12% | 13% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 7 | 9% | 8% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 5 | 7% | 7% |
Convictions on the Most Common Charges
28 of 35 Article 128 cases ended in a conviction on that article (80%), with a median confinement of 9 months. 10 of 12 Article 107 cases did (83%), with a median of 6 months. 7 of 9 Article 112a cases did, with a median of 3 months.
Article 120 had the lowest conviction rate among the most common charges: 15 of 21 (71%). It also had the longest median confinement after a conviction: 2 years. A case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 35 | 28 (80%) | 9 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 21 | 15 (71%) | 2 years |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 12 | 10 (83%) | 6 months |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 9 | 7 (7 of 9) | 3 months |
Confinement
87% of the 63 convictions included confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the service median. A quarter of the sentences were 2 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover every charge in the case.
17 of 63 convictions (27%) had confinement longer than one year, about the same as the 26% service share. The median confinement was 1.3 years at general courts-martial and 3 months at special courts-martial, which are capped at one year.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, Navy and Marine Corps-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 8 | 13% | 12% |
| Under 6 months | 27 | 43% | 39% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 11 | 17% | 23% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 12 | 19% | 18% |
| 5 years or more | 5 | 8% | 9% |
Punitive Discharges and Dismissals
32 of 54 convicted enlisted members received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (59%). That is lower than the 64% service rate. 10 of the 32 were dishonorable discharges.
7 officers or warrant officers were convicted, and 3 were sentenced to dismissal. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Jacksonville and Pensacola
Jacksonville, Florida (78 cases) and Pensacola, Florida (74 cases) held a similar number of cases. All 3 had a median confinement of 6 months. Pensacola's figures were close to Washington's: a 38% contested share and 12 of 26 full acquittals.
Jacksonville had a lower contested share, 21%. 4 of 16 contested cases with a verdict ended in a full acquittal there, and its punitive discharge rate was 66%.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington, D.C. | 76 | 39% | 13 of 29 | 6 months | 59% |
| Jacksonville, Florida | 78 | 21% | 4 of 16 | 6 months | 66% |
| Pensacola, Florida | 74 | 38% | 12 of 26 | 6 months | 56% |
Case Counts and Limits
The yearly counts were 16 in 2013, 16 in 2014, 12 in 2015, 14 in 2016, 8 in 2017, and 10 in 2018. That is 4% of the 2,059 Navy and Marine Corps cases in those years. All of these trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019.
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled outside a court-martial, such as nonjudicial punishment.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Washington, D.C. with a trial date in 2013–2018 (76 cases), compared with all 2,059 Navy and Marine Corps trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
- Washington, D.C.: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- What Was Tried at Washington, D.C., 2019–2023? 41 Courts-Martial (another period)
- Washington, D.C., 2024–2026: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 21 Cases (another period)
- Jacksonville, Florida, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 78 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Pensacola, Florida, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 74 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Bremerton, Washington Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 52 Cases Show
- Bremerton, Washington, 2013–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 221 Cases
- Bremerton, Washington, 2019–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 153 Cases
- 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.