Court Martial Index

The UCMJ creates three courts-martial: summary, special, and general (Article 16). A summary court-martial is one commissioned officer trying minor offenses by enlisted members, with low punishment limits, a non-criminal...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

During a military investigation, before any charges, a suspect has four main protections. Article 31(b) requires a warning before anyone subject to the UCMJ, acting in an official law-enforcement or...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Article 134 opens with the words "Though not specifically mentioned in this chapter" and punishes three kinds of conduct: disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Since 2013, Congress has changed the military justice system through a series of annual National Defense Authorization Acts. The largest changes moved charging decisions for serious offenses from commanders to...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

A court-martial applies the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. chapter 47) to persons subject to it, chiefly service members. A military commission under the Military Commissions Act (10 U.S.C. chapter 47A) tries...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

The military's plea bargain is the plea agreement under Article 53a of the UCMJ and Rule for Courts-Martial 705. The accused may promise to plead guilty (or enter a confessional...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Under the Manual's charging guidance, U.S. service members who violate the law of armed conflict are charged with the underlying UCMJ offense, such as murder, assault, maltreatment, or dereliction of...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

The UCMJ is a federal statute, codified at 10 U.S.C. §§ 801-946a (Articles 1 through 146a), that defines who is subject to military law, what the offenses are, which courts-martial...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Absence without leave (Article 86) punishes being absent without authority from a place of duty, regardless of intent. Desertion (Article 85) adds a specific intent or a specific act: absence...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Article 133 punishes "Any commissioned officer, cadet, or midshipman who is convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer". Under the Manual, official conduct violates it when, "in dishonoring or disgracing the...

Oct 21, 2026 4 min read

Reserve component members are subject to the UCMJ while on active duty, and while on inactive-duty training plus travel to and from the training site and the intervals between training...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

The system began in 1775 as a short code of Articles of War copied largely from the British, was rewritten in 1776, 1806, and again in the early twentieth century,...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

The Fourth Amendment applies to service members, and Military Rules of Evidence 311 through 317 put it into practice at courts-martial. Two features set the military apart: a commander, military...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

A contested general or special court-martial moves through set stages: Article 39(a) sessions and arraignment, where pleas are entered and forum elections are made; motions; assembly and voir dire if...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

A military death sentence requires an offense for which the UCMJ authorizes death, a case referred as capital, a court-martial of 12 members, unanimous findings on guilt (or a guilty...

Oct 21, 2026 8 min read

Court-martial appeals run through three levels: a service Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA), the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces (CAAF), and the Supreme Court by certiorari. Since the...

Oct 21, 2026 7 min read

Article 15 lets a commanding officer impose limited punishments for minor offenses "without the intervention of a court-martial" (Article 15(b)). Except for a member attached to or embarked in a...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Rule for Courts-Martial 304 recognizes four forms of pretrial restraint: conditions on liberty, restriction in lieu of arrest, arrest, and confinement. Any form requires probable cause that an offense was...

Oct 21, 2026 6 min read

Three protections run side by side. R.C.M. 707 requires arraignment within 120 days after the earlier of preferral, certain pretrial restraint, or entry on active duty, excluding approved delays. Article...

Oct 21, 2026 5 min read

Under the UCMJ, "sexual assault" is both a specific offense, Article 120(b), and the everyday name for a family of graded offenses spread across Article 120 (adult victims), Article 120b...

Oct 21, 2026 8 min read