3.2h UCMJ | Punitive Articles – Chapter X

Article 77: Principals

Any person who either commits an offense, or aids, abets, counsels, commands, or procurers its commission; or a person who causes an act to be done which if directly performed by him would be a crime

Article 78: Accessory After the Fact

Any person who, knowing that a punishable offense has been committed, receives, comforts, or assists the offender in order to hinder or prevent his apprehension, trial, or punishment

Article 79: Conviction of Lesser Included Offense

When an accused is found not guilty of the charged offense, but guilty of a lesser offense that is reasonably included in the greater charged offense

For example, an accused charged with aggravated assault may be found not guilty of that offense because the physical injuries are not severe enough to be aggravated, but guilty of simple assault and battery

Article 80: Attempt

An act, done with specific intent to commit an offense under this chapter, amounting to more than mere preparation and tending, even though failing, to effect its commission, is an attempt to commit that offense

Or any person who attempts to commit any punishable offense shall be punished as a court-martial may direct, unless otherwise specifically prescribed

Any person may be convicted of an attempt to commit an offense although it appears on the trial that the offense was consummated

Article 81: Conspiracy

Any person who conspires with any other person to commit an offense

Article 82: Solicitation

Any person who solicits or advises another or others to commit an act of misbehavior

Soliciting desertion, mutiny, sedition, or misbehavior before the enemy carries aggravated penalties up to and including death

Article 83: Malingering

Any person who feigns illness, physical disablement, mental lapse, or intentionally inflicts self-injury with the intent to avoid work, duty, or service

Article 84: Breach of Medical Quarantine

Any person who violates the limits of a medical quarantine before being released by proper authority

Article 85: Desertion

Any member who without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away permanently; or quits his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to avoid hazardous duty or to shirk important service

Article 86: Absence Without Leave (AWOL)

Any member who, without authority fails to go to his appointed place of duty at the time prescribed; or goes from that place; or absents himself or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty at which he is required to be at the time prescribed

Article 87: Missing Movement

Any person who through neglect or design misses the movement of a ship, aircraft, or unit with which he is required in the course of duty to move

Article 87a: Resistance, Flight, Breach of Arrest, and Escape

Any person who resists or flees apprehension, breaks arrest, or escapes from custody

Article 87b: Offenses Against Correctional Custody and Restriction

Any person who escapes from correctional custody or who goes beyond the limits of a restriction before being released by proper authority

Article 88: Contempt Towards Officials

Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, etc.

Article 89: Disrespect Toward Superior Commissioned Officer

Any person who behaves with disrespect toward or strikes his superior commissioned officer

Article 90: Willfully Disobeying a Superior Commissioned Officer

Any person who disobeys the lawful command of a superior commissioned officer

Article 93: Cruelty and Maltreatment

Any person who is guilty of cruelty toward, or oppression or maltreatment of, any person subject to his orders

Article 93a: Prohibited Activities with Military Recruit or Trainee by Person in Position of Special Trust

Any officer, person in a training leadership position, or military recruiter who engages in prohibited sexual activity with a basic trainee, recruit, or cadet

Consent is not a defense

Article 94: Mutiny or Sedition

Any person with intent to usurp or override lawful military authority

Article 95: Offenses by Sentinel or Lookout

Any sentinel who is drunk on post, sleeps on post, leaves post without proper authorization, or who wrongfully loiters on post

Article 95a: Disrespect Toward Sentinel or Lookout

Any person who uses wrongful or disrespectful language or behavior towards a sentinel or lookout while that sentinel or lookout is performing their official duties

Article 96: Releasing Prisoner without Proper Authority

Any person who, without proper authority, releases any prisoner committed to his charge, or who through neglect suffers any such prisoner to escape

Also any person who unlawfully drinks alcohol with a prisoner

Article 97: Unlawful Detention

Any person who, except as provided by law, apprehends, arrests, or confines any person

Article 98: Misconduct as a Prisoner

Any person who, while in the hands of the enemy in time of war, for the purpose of securing favorable treatment by his captors acts without proper authority in a manner contrary to law, custom, or regulation, or while in a position of authority over such persons maltreat them without justifiable cause

Article 99: Misbehavior Before the Enemy

Any person who before or in the presence of the enemy runs away; shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is his duty to defend

Articles 100: Subordinate Compelling Surrender

Any person who compels or attempts to compel the commander of any place, vessel, aircraft, or other military property, or of any body of members of the armed forces, to give it up to an enemy or to abandon it, or who strikes the colors or flag to an enemy without proper authority

Articles 101: Improper Use of Countersign

Any person who in time of war discloses the parole or countersign to a person not entitled to receive it or who gives to another who is entitled to receive and use the parole or countersign a different parole or countersign from that which, to his knowledge, he was authorized and required to give

Articles 102: Forcing a Safeguard

Any person who forces a safeguard

• A safeguard is a protection of enemy possessions or persons conducted by our own forces
• “Forcing a safeguard” means to perform an act in violation of the protection of the safeguard

Articles 103: Spies

Any person who is found lurking as a spy or acting as a spy in or about any place, vessel, or aircraft, within the control or jurisdiction of any of the armed forces

Articles 103a: Espionage

Any person who, with intent or reason to believe that it is to be used to the injury of the U.S. or to the advantage of a foreign nation, communicates, delivers, or transmits, or attempts to communicate, deliver, or transmit, to an entity

Articles 103b: Aiding the Enemy

Any person who aids, or attempts to aid , the enemy with arms, ammunition, supplies, money, or other things; or without proper authority, knowingly harbors or protects or gives intelligence to or communicates or corresponds with out holds any intercourse with enemy, either directly or indirectly

Articles 104: Public Records Offenses

Any person who willfully and unlawfully alters, conceals, removes or destroys a public record

Articles 104a: Fraudulent Enlistment, Appointment or Separation

Any person who either procures his own enlistment or appointment in the armed forces by knowingly false representation or deliberate concealment as to his qualifications for the enlistment or appointment and receives pay or allowances; or procures his own separation from the armed forces by knowing false representation or deliberate concealment as to his eligibility for that separation

Articles 104b: Unlawful Enlistment, Appointment or Separation

Any person who effects an enlistment or appointment in or a separation from the armed forces of any person who is known to him to be ineligible for that enlistment, appointment, or separation because it prohibited by law, regulation, or order

Article 105: Forgery

Any person who, with intent to defraud falsely makes or alters any signature, to, or any part of, any writing which would, if genuine, apparently impose a legal liability on another or change his legal right or liability to his prejudice; or utters, offers, issues, or transfers such a writing, known by him to be so made or altered

Article 105a: False or unauthorized pass

Any person who counterfeits, alters, tampers with, sells, or wrongfully uses a military or official pass, ID, permit, or discharge certificate

Article 106: Impersonation of Officer, Noncommissioned Officer, or Agent or Official

Any person who wrongfully impersonates an officer, noncommissioned officer, agent of superior authority, or a government official with or without the intent to defraud

Article 106a: Wearing Unauthorized Insignia, Decoration, Badge, Ribbon, Device, or Lapel Button

Any person who wrongfully wears an insignia, decoration, badge, ribbon, device, or lapel button on a military uniform or civilian clothing without proper authority

Article 107: False Official Statements; False Swearing

Any person who makes or signs a false record, order, official document, or makes a false statement with the intent to deceive

Also any person who makes a false statement under oath

Article 107a: Parole Violation

Any person who was a prisoner as a result of a court-martial conviction and violates the conditions of parole

Article 108: Military Property – Loss, Damage, Destruction or Wrongful Disposition

Any person who, without proper authority, sells or otherwise disposes of; willfully or through neglect damages, destroys, or loses; or willfully or through neglect suffers to be lost, damaged, sold, or wrongfully disposed of any military property of the United States

Article 108a: Captured or Abandoned Property

Any person who fails to secure property taken from the enemy and turn over all such captured or abandoned property within their possession, custody, or control to the proper authority without delay

Article 109: Property Other Than Military Property of the US - Waste, Spoilage or Destruction

Any person who wrongfully takes, opens, secretes, destroys, or steals mail before the mail is delivered to or received by the addressee

Article 109a: Mail Matter, Wrongful Taking, Opening, etc.

Any person who willfully or recklessly wastes, spoils, or otherwise willfully and wrongfully destroys or damages any property other than military property of the U.S.

Article 110: Improper Hazarding of a Vessel Aircraft

Any person who willfully and wrongfully, or negligently, hazards or suffers to be hazarded any vessel or aircraft of the armed forces

Article 111: Leaving Scene of a Vehicle Accident

Any person who is the driver of a vehicle that leaves the scene of an accident that results in personal injury or property damage without providing assistance to an injured person or without providing personal identification to others involved in the accident or to proper authorities

Article 112: Drunkenness and Other Incapacitation Offenses

Any person who is drunk on duty, is incapacitated for proper performance of duty due to alcohol or drugs, or any prisoner who is drunk

Article 112a: Wrongful Use or Possession of Controlled Substances

Any person who wrongfully uses, possesses, manufactures, distributes, imports into the customs territory of the U.S., exports from the U.S., or introduces into an installation, vessel, vehicle, or aircraft used by or under the control of the armed forces

Article 113: Drunken or Reckless Operation of a Vehicle, Aircraft, or Vessel

Any person who operates or physically controls any vehicle, aircraft, or vessel in a reckless or wanton manner or while impaired by a substance or while drunk (defined as blood alcohol level above 0.08).

Article 114: Endangerment Offenses

Any person who engages in conduct that is wrongful and reckless, and is likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm

Such conduct explicitly includes dueling, unlawfully carrying a concealed weapon, and wrongfully discharging a firearm in a manner that endangers human life

Article 116: Riot or Breach of Peace

Any person who causes or participates in any riot or breach of the peace

Article 118: Murder

Any person who, without justification or excuse, unlawfully kills a human being, when he has a premeditated design to kill; intends to kill or inflict great bodily harm; is engaged in an act that is inherently dangerous to another and evinces a wanton disregard of human life

Article 119: Manslaughter

Any person who, with an intent to kill or inflict great bodily harm, unlawfully kills a human being in the heat of sudden passion caused by adequate provocation

Article 119a: Death or Injury of an Unborn Child

Any person who engages in conduct that violates any of the provisions of law listed, to, a child, who is in utero at the time the conduct takes place

Article 119b: Child Endangerment

Any person who has a duty to care for a child under 16 years and who is negligent in that duty in a way that endangers the child’s mental or physical health, safety, or welfare

Article 120: Rape and Sexual Assault Generally

Rape

Committing a sexual act upon another person

Using unlawful force

Force can be using a weapon or the use of such physical strength or violence as is sufficient to overcome, restrain or injure a person

Force can also mean inflicting physical harm sufficient to coerce or compel submission by the victim

Force is unlawful when it is done without legal justification or excuse

Using force causing or likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm

Grievous bodily harm means serious bodily injury, including fractured or dislocated bones, deep cuts, torn members of the body, serious damage to internal organs, or other severe bodily injuries

A person cannot consent to force causing or likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm or to being rendered unconscious

Threatening death or grievous bodily harm

Threatening means a communication or action that is sufficient to cause a reasonable fear that non- compliance will result in a victim OR another person being subject to that communication or action

A person cannot consent while under threat or fear

Rendering the person unconscious

Administering a drug or intoxicating substance to that person, by force, threat of force, or without the knowledge and consent of that person, that substantially impairs their ability to appraise or control their conduct

Marriage is not a defense to any crime under Article 120

Sexual Assault

• Committing a sexual act upon another person
• By threatening the person
• By causing bodily harm
• Bodily harm means any offensive touching, no matter how slight
• Committing a sexual act upon another without consent
• Representing that the sexual acts serves a professional purpose
• By making the person believe you’re someone else
• When you know that the person is asleep, unconscious, or otherwise unaware that the sexual act is occurring
• When the person is incapable of consenting to the act due to impairment by any drug, intoxicant or other similar substance

Sexual Act

• Penetration of the penis into the vulva, anus, mouth
• Contact between the mouth and the penis, vulva, scrotum, or anus
• The penetration, however slight, of the vulva, penis, or anus of another by any part of the body or by any object, with an intent to abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade any person or to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person

Aggravated Sexual Contact

• Same scenario as a rape, but instead of a sexual act, it’s a sexual contact
• Sexual contact = touching (with any part of the body) the vulva, penis, scrotum, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks of another person of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thigh, or buttocks
• Directly or through clothing

Abusive Sexual Contact

• Same scenario as a sexual assault, but instead of a sexual act, it’s a sexual contact

Consent

A freely given agreement to the conduct at issue by a competent person

Lack of consent is inferred based on the circumstances of the offense

All the surrounding circumstances are to be considered in determining whether a person gave consent, or whether a person did not resist or ceased to resist only because of another person’s actions

Things that do not equal consent:

• Lack of verbal or physical resistance as a result of force, threat of force, or placing a person in fear
• A current or previous dating or sexual relationship
• The victim’s manner of dress
• A sleeping, unconscious, or incompetent state
• One or more drinks of alcohol does not automatically render a person unable to consent to a sexual act
• There is a common misconception that anyone who has had a drink and later engages in some type of sexual activity has been raped or sexually assaulted
• Impairment alone does not mean a person cannot consent
• Impairment does not always constitute a lack of consent

However, if a person is in a state in which they are “incapable of consenting to the sexual act due to...impairment by any drug, intoxicant, or other similar substance, [when] that condition is known or reasonably should be known by the [member],” there is a lack of consent

There are various levels or degrees of impairment, and at some point impairment may render an individual incapable of consenting to the sexual act

• A review of all the surrounding circumstances is to be conducted, not just whether the individual has consumed either a single or even multiple intoxicating substances
• While having one drink does NOT usually mean a person cannot consent to sexual acts, if a person is so drunk that he or she is vomiting and passing out, the individual is most likely beyond the point at which he or she can consent to such acts

A person is Incapable of Consent if:

• The person is incapable of consenting if they lack the cognitive ability to appreciate the sexual conduct in question
• The person lacks the ability to make a decision about whether they agreed to the sexual conduct
• The person lacks the ability to communicate their decision about whether they agreed to the sexual conduct

Article 121: Larceny And Wrongful Appropriation

Any person who wrongfully takes, obtains, or withholds, by any means, from the possession of the owner or of any other person any money, personal property, or article of value of any kind

Article 121a: Fraudulent Use of Credit Cards, etc.

Any person who knowingly and with intent to defraud uses a stolen or revoked debit card, credit card, or access device of another person to obtain money, property, services, or anything else of value

Article 121b: False Pretenses to Obtain Service

Any person who, with intent to defraud, knowingly uses false pretenses to obtain services

Article 122: Robbery

Any person who takes anything of value from another person, by means of force, violence, or fear of immediate or future injury

Article 122a: Receiving Stolen Property

Any person who wrongfully and knowingly receives, buys, or conceals stolen property

Article 123: Offenses Concerning Government Computers

Any person who knowingly accesses a government computer for an unauthorized purpose, and by doing so receives classified or protection information; obtains classified information and delivers such information to an unauthorized third-party; or causes the transmission of a program, information code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage to a government computer

Article 123a: Making, Drawing or Uttering Check, Draft or Order Without Sufficient Funds

Any person who for the procurement of any article or thing of value, with intent to defraud; or for the payment of any past due obligation, or for any other purpose, with intent to deceive

Article 124: Frauds Against the United States

Any person who, knowing it to be false or fraudulent makes any claim against the U.S

Article 124a: Bribery

Any person who uses their official position to wrongly ask, accept, or receive anything of value in exchange for official action; or any person who wrongfully promises, offers, or gives a thing of value to a person in an official position in exchange for influencing their official actions

Article 124b: Graft

Any person in an official position who wrongfully asks, accepts, or receives compensation for performance of their official duties; or any person who wrongfully promises, offers, or gives compensation to a person for performance of their official duties

Article 125: Kidnapping

Any person who confines or wrongfully carries away another person and holds that person against their will

Article 126: Arson; Burning Property with Intent to Defraud

Any person who maliciously sets fire to the property of another; sets fire to any structure knowing that another person is inside; or sets fire to any property with intent to defraud

Article 127: Extortion

Any person who communicates threats to another person with the intention thereby to obtain anything of value

Article 128: Assault

Any person who attempts to do bodily harm to another person, offers to do bodily harm to another person, or does bodily harm to another person

Article 128a: Maiming

Any person who intentionally and seriously disfigures another person or destroys or disables any organ of another person

Article 128b: Domestic Violence

Any person who commits a violent offense against a spouse, intimate partner or immediate family member; commits any offense with the intent to intimidate a spouse, intimate partner or immediate family member; or violates a military protective order

Article 129: Burglary; Unlawful Entry

Any person who breaks and enters the structure of another with the intent to commit a crime therein; or any person who unlawfully enters the property of another

Article 130: Stalking

Any person who wrongfully engages in a repeated pattern of conduct that reasonably causes another person to fear death or bodily harm (including sexual assault) against that person or that person’s immediate family member. Repeated means two or more occasions

Article 131: Perjury

Any person who in a judicial proceeding or in a course of justice willfully and corruptly upon a lawful oath or in any form allowed by law to be substituted for an oath, gives any false testimony material to the issue or matter of inquiry

Article 131a: Subornation of Perjury

Any person who induces another to take an oath and falsely testify

Article 131b: Obstructing Justice

Any person who engages in conduct with intent to influence, impede, or otherwise obstruct the due administration of justice

Article 131c: Misprision of Serious Offense

Any person who knows that another person has committed a serious offense and wrongfully conceals the commission of the offense

Article 131d: Wrongful Refusal to Testify

Any person who wrongfully refuses to testify at an administrative board, a military commission, a court of inquiry, a preliminary hearing, a court-martial, or a deposition after being directed to do so by the person presiding over the proceeding

Article 131e: Prevention of Authorized Seizure of Property

Any person who disposes of property with intent to prevent the lawful seizure of such property

Article 131f: Noncompliance with Procedural Rules

Any person who is responsible for unnecessary delay in the disposition of any cases of a person accused of an offense; or knowingly and intentionally fails to enforce or comply with any provision regulating the proceedings before during, or after trial of an accused

Article 131g: Wrongful Interference with Adverse Administrative Proceedings

Any person who wrongfully acts with intent to include, impede, or obstruct an administrative proceeding or the due administration of justice

Article 132: Retaliation

Any person who takes/threatens to take an adverse personnel action or withholds/threatens to withhold a favorable personnel action in retaliation for a person reporting or planning to report a crime, or to deter a person from reporting a crime