By the numbers 2022

Update: The number of Article 15s has dropped significantly as well. 150,00 in FY90, 80,000 in FY00, and 36,000 in FY22.

The JSC has published the joint report to Congress under UCMJ art. 140a.

​Courts-martial numbers continued their slide downward in FY22. In total the services completed 1,179 general and special courts. That is down from 1361 in FY21 and 1542 in FY19. For more historical perspective in FY15, the total was 1940, FY00 it was 4824 and FY90 was 9907. In FY60 the services completed 40,810 generals and specials.  

There were 670 GCMs and 509 SPCMs compared to 827 GCMs and 534 SPCMs in FY21. There were a total of 169 acquittals for a conviction rate of 86%. Only 283 courts were with members meaning 76% of all courts were judge alone.  

Numbers by service:

The Air Force completed 161 GCMs and 153 SPCMs. There were 43 acquittals for a conviction rate of 86%. For GCMs the conviction rate was 77% up from 55% in FY21. The Air Force had 113 member courts or 36%, which is the highest percentage of members courts of any of the services. The Air Force has 21 active duty judges. The report does not list the number of Reserve judges. This means there were 15 courts a year for each active duty judge. Of those, only 5 were with members.

The Air Force has 83 ADCs and 18 CDCs. The average ADC did 3.8 courts with 1.3 before members. The average ADC had .5 acquittals last fiscal year. Considering the ADC position is viewed as the place where Air Force JAGs get the litigation experience needed to become senior defense and trial counsel, this is worrisome. Additionally, civilian defense counsel or circuit defense counsel likely do most findings arguments. It seems probable that the average Air Force JAG will leave the ADC position without ever presenting a findings argument, especially before members. The Air Force completed 4183 Article 15s or about 50 per ADC. 

There are 23 CTCs which works out  to 7 GCMs a year if every GCM has an CTC detailed to the case. Highly unlikely. 66 of the GCMs were before members. That comes to 2.8 members GCMs per CTC in a year.  The Air Force has 1318 active duty JAGs with 580 captains and 367 majors, which averages out to .3 courts a year for a O-3/O-4 JAG. Of course, not all O-3s and O-4s are doing courts, but it does give perspective on litigation workload in the JAGC. By comparison, in FY90 the Air Force had close to the same number of JAGs but completed 1480 GCMs and SPCMs.

The Army completed 478 GCMs and SPCMs with 64 acquittals for a conviction rate of 87%.  242 of the courts were GCMs and 129 were SPCMs. 107 of the courts were before members or 22%. 153 of the cases were fully contested, 49 were mixed pleas and 276 were guilty pleas. I wish all the services provided this data, but this means it's possible to see the conviction rate in fully contested courts. When the accused pleaded not guilty to all charges in FY22, they were acquitted 42% of the time. The Army has 142 TDS JAGs, so this is basically one fully contested case a year per TDS attorney.  The Army had 24 active duty trial judges and 22 Reserve judges. I have no idea how often Reserve judges preside over Army cases, so it is difficult to figure out their workload. The Army has 1740 active duty JAGs with 543 majors and 896 captains.

The Marines did 206 GCMs and SPCMs in FY22 with 38 acquittals. The overall conviction rate is 82%. 93 of the courts were GCMs and 113 were SPCMs. Only 28 or 14% of the cases were before members. The Marines had the lowest percentage of members courts. I could not find the total number of defense counsel in the Marines, but the Marines have 72 JAGs who appear to act as trial counsel. If accurate this means about 3 courts per year for the average trial counsel.

The Navy did 181 GCMs and SPCMs in FY22 with 24 acquittals. The overall conviction rate was 87%. 81 of the courts were GCMs and 100 were SPCMs. The Navy and Marines have 27 active duty and 14 Reserve judges. That comes to 14 courts per year for each active duty judge. Again, that is certainly less depending how many were done by Reserve judges. 35 or 19% of the courts were before members. JAGs in the Navy/USMC appear to  have little opportunity to practice before members.

These rough and broad numbers were prepared for us by a colleague well familiar with the reports over the years. The numbers lead to some troubling questions or thoughts.

You can see our earlier stabs at numbers here.