The Court-Martial Process
How a case moves from an alleged offense to appellate review. Every citation links to the rule itself, and every stage links to the deadlines that attach at that point — so you can read the sequence and the clock together.
An overview, not the rules. This chart compresses a process the Manual takes hundreds of pages to state, and it necessarily leaves out exceptions, alternative paths, and the discretion at nearly every step. Verify anything you rely on against the rule or article itself, the Military Judges’ Benchbook (EBB) instruction where one applies, current case law, and your service’s implementing regulations — office names, referral practice, and disposition authority vary by service. Not legal advice.
Alleged UCMJ violation
A report of an offense reaches a commander or law enforcement. Anyone subject to the code may report an offense.
Investigation
The commander inquires into the reported offense, or a military criminal investigative organization (NCIS, CGIS, CID, OSI) does. Service regulations generally govern the type of investigation and how it is conducted. A request to a provider to preserve records starts its own retention clock.
2 deadlines attach hereConvening authority
The commander decides disposition. A court-martial is only one option: no action, administrative action, nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, or forwarding the matter up the chain are all available.
Special Trial Counsel
For the covered offenses listed below — and offenses related to them, or known offenses by the same accused — the decision to prefer and refer charges belongs exclusively to the Special Trial Counsel (STC), not to the commander. Its determinations bind the convening authority.
Note: Because R.C.M. 306A(a) vests exclusive disposition authority in the STC once it exercises authority over an offense, and since R.C.M. 306 both enumerates administrative action as a commander's disposition option (306(c)(2)) and withholds the entire rule from such offenses (306(a)(1)), the services have generally concluded that a commander may take no disposition action, including administrative separation, unless and until the STC defers.
Preferral — trial counsel clock starts
Charges are signed and sworn before a person authorized to administer oaths. In most services, this is done through the regional trial office.
3 deadlines attach herePreferral — STC clock starts
A special trial counsel prefers the charges. The STC may instead defer a covered offense back to the convening authority. That deferral is binding.
3 deadlines attach hereArticle 32 preliminary hearing
A preliminary hearing officer considers probable cause, jurisdiction, the form of the charges, and disposition. Required before referral to a general court-martial unless waived — so not every case has one: charges may be referred to a summary or special court-martial without a hearing. Who directs the hearing matters: where a special trial counsel directs it, only a special trial counsel may refer the charges afterwards.
4 deadlines attach hereReferral — convening authority
The convening authority refers the charges to a court-martial it is empowered to convene — summary, special, or general. Referral to a general court-martial also requires the Article 34 pretrial advice of the staff judge advocate.
Referral — special trial counsel
For a covered offense the referral decision belongs to the special trial counsel alone — the convening authority may not refer it. Having preferred the charges, the STC either directs a preliminary hearing or refers the case directly to a special court-martial; a general court-martial referral needs the hearing first unless it is waived. An STC refers only to a special or general court-martial, never to a summary court-martial. And under R.C.M. 601(b)(2), where a STC directed the preliminary hearing, only a STC may refer the charges.
Summary court-martial
Enlisted members only, and the accused may refuse it. Not a criminal conviction. Sharply limited punishment — no punitive discharge, and confinement capped at 30 days. Only a convening authority can refer here. SCM not available for violations of Articles 120, 120b, or attempts of either offense.
Special court-martial
The intermediate forum. A military judge alone, or a judge with at least four members. Jurisdictional maximum of one year of confinement and a bad-conduct discharge.
General court-martial
The felony-level forum, and the only one that may adjudge a dishonourable discharge or the death penalty. Eight members, or twelve in a capital case, unless the accused elects judge alone.
Arraignment clock stops
The charges are read (or waived) and the accused is called on to plead. Arraignment stops the R.C.M. 707 speedy-trial clock. Charges must have been served first, and the accused may not be brought to trial over objection until the Article 35 waiting period has run.
4 deadlines attach herePretrial motions
Motions to dismiss, to suppress, and for appropriate relief are litigated. Several evidentiary motions and disclosures are due a set number of days before entry of pleas, and the Government may appeal certain rulings within 72 hours.
7 deadlines attach hereGuilty plea
A plea agreement may be negotiated at any point. The military judge then conducts a providence inquiry, satisfying themselves that the plea is knowing, voluntary, and supported by an adequate factual basis.
- Plea agreement R.C.M. 705
- Providence inquiry R.C.M. 910
Contested trial
Members are assembled and voir dire conducted, the case is presented on the merits, and the military judge instructs. The Military Rules of Evidence govern throughout — and a few of them, such as the certification-of-absence notice, run on their own pre-trial clock.
2 deadlines attach hereFindings
Guilty or not guilty is announced on each specification and charge. A conviction requires the concurrence of at least three-fourths of the members present. A finding of not guilty only by reason of lack of mental responsibility starts a separate post-trial hearing clock.
1 deadline attach herePresentencing
Aggravation, extenuation, and mitigation are presented, along with victim impact. Sentencing is by segmented sentencing to confinement in most cases, and the sentence is announced.
10 deadlines attach herePost-trial
The Statement of Trial Results issues, post-trial motions are filed, the accused and any crime victim may submit clemency matters, the convening authority acts, and the military judge enters judgment. This stage carries more deadlines than any other.
19 deadlines attach hereAppeals & review
Review by the service Court of Criminal Appeals, then by petition to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, and ultimately by certiorari to the Supreme Court. Every step here runs on a strict, short clock.
11 deadlines attach hereOffenses covered by the Office of Special Trial Counsel
For these offenses the decision to prefer and refer charges rests exclusively with a special trial counsel, not the commander — along with offenses related to a covered offense (underage drinking by a witness, say) and other known offenses by the same accused (a false official statement made during the investigation). Conspiracy, solicitation, and attempt to commit a covered offense are covered too. See R.C.M. 306A and Article 24a, UCMJ.
| Article | Offense |
|---|---|
| Art. 117a | Intimate visual images |
| Art. 118 | Murder |
| Art. 119 | Manslaughter |
| Art. 119a | Death or injury of an unborn child |
| Art. 120 | Rape and sexual assault |
| Art. 120a | Mails: deposit of obscene matter |
| Art. 120b | Sexual assault of a child |
| Art. 120c | Other sexual misconduct |
| Art. 125 | Kidnapping |
| Art. 128b | Domestic violence |
| Art. 130 | Stalking |
| Art. 132 | Retaliation |
| Art. 134 | Child pornography |
| Art. 134 | Sexual harassment (substantiated) — effective 1 January 2025 |
Applies throughout
These sit beside the sequence rather than inside it — available or applicable at more than one stage.
Recall to active duty & pretrial restraint
Conditions on liberty, restriction, arrest, or pretrial confinement may be imposed once there is probable cause. Restraint independently starts the R.C.M. 707 speedy-trial clock, and confinement starts a cascade of 24-, 48-, and 72-hour review deadlines.
11 deadlines attach hereAdministrative disposition options
Not every allegation becomes a court-martial. Counselling, administrative separation, and nonjudicial punishment under Article 15 are available to the commander — an off-ramp at the disposition decision, not a step in the trial sequence.
Plea agreement
Negotiation is not confined to one point in the process — an agreement may be reached before referral and up to the entry of pleas, and it binds the convening authority and the accused alike.
Speedy trial
The 120-day clock starts at the earliest of preferral, imposition of restraint, or entry on active duty, and stops at arraignment. Several events restart it — dismissal, mistrial, re-preferral, a Government appeal, or a rehearing.
10 deadlines attach hereClocks outside this sequence
A handful of the Manual’s time periods attach to events that never appear on a process chart — the 180-day window to re-prefer charges dismissed as defective, the competency-restoration custody limit, the 14-day Article 137 explanation on entering active duty, and a few others. They are in the chart; they just have no place in the sequence above.
6 deadlines attach hereSCOPE
This chart follows the ordinary path of a case. It does not show every branch — withdrawal and dismissal of charges, a mistrial, a Government appeal, rehearings, or vacation of a suspended sentence all divert from the sequence above, and several of them restart the speedy-trial clock.
The name of the trial office vary by service. Regardless, Special Trial Counsels exists in every service. The investigating organization for the sea-going services are NCIS or CGIS, CID in the Army, and OSI in the Air Force and Space Force.