Army January 2017 Court-Martial Results

The Army has published the January 2017 court-martial results. As always, here is our analysis. We count 51 court-martials. I count 35 guilty pleas (68%). I would say total plea bargains were trending slightly above average for January. We’re starting to see – over the last few months – more judge alone trials. I still think the data support jury trials in most cases. That is true most of the time in sexual assault cases. The sexual assault data for January was a mixed bag. There were 11 cases. Five were mixed verdicts. A mixed verdict in a sexual assault case is usually a not guilty to the sexual assault and guilty to an assault consummated by battery. It’s usually when the jury has reservations about the credibility of the alleged victim. There were two-judge alone acquittals and two jury full acquittals. The sentences were all very low except for a 5-year sentence from a judge. But, once again, nearly half of the contested sexual assault cases were acquittals. That number is down a little, but still high. Total – 51

• Guilty pleas – 35 (68%)
• Contested Cases – 16 (32%)
• Mixed Pleas – 2
• Jury Trials – 9 (17%)
• Judge Alone Contest – 6
• Mixed Verdict – 8
• Full Acquittals -4 (two judges alone, one enlisted panel

January Results of Trial