UCMJ Mandatory Sentencing Guidelines

At Bilecki Law Group, we fly in hard-hitting attorneys anywhere in the world to defend service members from the abuse and misuse of the UCMJ. With new mandatory sentencing guidelines, an aggressive military court martial defense is more important than ever.

Home Court Martial Defense UCMJ Mandatory Sentencing Guidelines

That the military justice system has a reputation for being harsh on service members is well known. Congress has recently exacerbated this issue with the introduction of mandatory sentencing guidelines and the requirement for sentencing by a military judge alone for all non-capital offenses.

Previously, service members had the right to select sentencing by members, which often resulted in a fairer outcome. Fellow service members know the nuances of military life, and there is a better than average chance that they have technically run afoul of the UCMJ at some point in their career. Military judges, on the other hand, tend to be far less understanding. To make matters worse, the judges are now confined to mandatory sentencing guidelines, which removes compassion from the equation if they had any. You can see the guidelines below.

Offenses Categories

Offense Category

Months Confinement

Category 1

0-12

Category 2

1-36

Category 3

30-120

Category 4

120-240

Category 5

240-480

Category 6

Confinement for life with eligibility for parole

Fight Like Hell To Prove Every Possible Exception

With the new mandatory guidelines in place, having an experienced court martial defense attorney is more important than ever. The UCMJ guidelines will allow military judges to deviate if there is a special exception or a finding of fact that warrants the change. They will not give this to you easily.

You are going to have to fight the prosecution on every specific fact of the case as each one could be the difference between receiving the mandatory sentence or receiving an exception. Cede to the prosecution nothing and take from them everything. Only a brawler’s mentality will prevail in court under these new sentencing guidelines.

You have to remember that the military justice system has never existed to pursue justice or uncover the truth. It exists for the singular purpose of preserving military order and discipline. For this to work, they have to make a public example out of someone and destroy them for all to see. This is to scare others into compliance. The new guidelines are only going to make that easier for prosecutors and military judges. It was a gift from Congress, and good men and women in uniform will be the ones to pay the price. Service members cannot count on mercy or reason with this one size fits all approach.

YOU CANNOT COEXIST WITH A MILITARY JUSTICE SYSTEM THAT IS TRYING TO DESTROY YOU.

Facing an Allegation?
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Timothy James Bilecki

Military law attorney

UCMJ Mandatory Sentencing Categories

The guidelines have broken down various articles of the UCMJ into six categories with Category 1 being the least severe and Category 6 being the most. Keep in mind that military prosecutors love to pile on the charges so that they may pile on the punishment. You could be facing multiple charges below and suffer from that compounding effect on the punishment.

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Good Service Members Routinely Violate the UCMJ

Namesake and founder, Tim Bilecki, spent years inside the military justice system as a senior defense counsel for the Army. He will tell you first-hand that some of the finest human beings who have ever worn the uniform have routinely violated some aspect of the UCMJ. Moreover, the sum of military history supports that observation.

In 2009, Marine Corporal Dakota Meyer was given direct orders to stand down when his friends were caught in an ambush in the Kunar Province of Afghanistan. He was told to remain at the rally point and not enter the fray as his friends were getting killed. Corporal Meyer said, “F that,” jumped into the fight, and picked up the nation’s highest military honor along the way.

In early 1970, Army Sergeant Peter Lemon was helping to protect the Illingworth Fire Base in the Tay Ninh Province of Vietnam. During the early morning hours, waves of NVA soldiers began to assault the base and outnumber the Americans nearly 2 to 1. Lemon fired the .50 cal into the enemy until it no longer functioned and despite multiple wounds, he was able to hold off several waves of attackers and killed the last enemy with his bare hands. He was also high as a kite on marijuana the entire time and picked up the Medal of Honor regardless.

You name the war, conflict, or military installation around the world, and we’ll show you men and women of inexplicable gallantry who could easily be prosecuted under the UCMJ for something. That’s what makes these mandatory sentencing guidelines so damning and cruel. Heroes like Dakota Meyer or Peter Lemon could be destroyed for the very actions that led them to the halls of military history. It is a fact that good service members violate the UCMJ, and the lack of discretion used in these new rules is a travesty of justice.

Bilecki Case Results Speak for Themselves

Now, we’re not arrogant enough to say that Congress and the President added the new guidelines because Bilecki was securing some incredible results for our clients, and you can check out those case results here. Then again, it would be par for the course in the military justice system to change the rules after taking too many losses. While these new guidelines do indeed stack the deck for the prosecution, our approach will not require any modifications.

That’s because we’ve always put forward an aggressive defense and we have always battled prosecutors and inept military investigators at every turn. We’ve never held anything back and that won’t change now that we have these cruel new sentencing guidelines. Prosecutors will continue to overreach and we’ll be there waiting for them when they do. Military investigators will still break the law and overlook evidence, but we will be there to throw it back in their face.

We also know that overseas commands will continue to use isolation and loneliness as weapons to get service members to admit guilt before getting competent representation by their side. That’s why we will fly anywhere in the world to defend the good service members who are on the frontlines to defend us. Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, you name the location and we will be there to fight by your side.

The one thing you simply cannot do now that these guidelines are in place is accept lazy and docile court-martial defense representation. Whether that is a free JAG defense counsel who is looking out for their own military career first and foremost or some lazy piece of shit attorney who knows nothing of what it means to wear the uniform. There is simply too much at stake now to accept anything less than the best. If you are facing investigation or court-martial right now, you’ve got a fight coming your way whether you wanted one or not. Reach out to us for a free defense strategy session and get us into the fight.