The arraignment is the first time the accused, the military judge, and counsel come together on the record in a referred court-martial. It is a procedural milestone, not a showdown over the facts. Nothing about guilt or innocence is resolved that day. Instead, the arraignment fixes who is being tried, on what charges, and along what schedule, and it marks the point where several important choices begin. A frequent misconception is that an accused must enter a plea the moment the arraignment begins, or that the arraignment somehow settles the case. Neither is true.
Reading the charges #
The session opens with the formal identification of the case and the reading of the charges and specifications, so that the accused is told exactly what they face on the record.
That reading can be waived. Under Rule for Courts-Martial 904, the accused or defense counsel may waive the reading of the charges, which is common when the charge sheet has already been received and reviewed. Whether read aloud or waived, the charges are established as the formal subject of the trial.
Advisement of rights #
The military judge advises the accused of their rights connected to the proceeding. This is where the judge confirms the accused understands the nature of the forum and the choices ahead.
A central part of this advisement is forum election. The accused decides how the case will be tried:
- Members (a panel) decide the findings, or
- The military judge alone decides the findings, if the accused so requests.
This choice is consequential and personal to the accused. For findings, the accused may elect a panel of members or, instead, ask that the judge alone hear the case. The decision is made knowingly and on the record, and it is one of the genuinely substantive moments of an otherwise procedural session.
Pleas can be entered or deferred #
Despite the common assumption, an accused is not required to lock in a plea at arraignment. Pleas may be entered at this stage, but they may also be deferred to a later session.
This matters because plea decisions are often tied to pretrial negotiations and to motions that have not yet been litigated. Deferring leaves room for those steps to play out before the accused commits to a plea. When a guilty plea is eventually entered, it triggers a separate process of its own, the providence inquiry, which is not part of the arraignment.
Setting the litigation schedule #
Finally, the judge uses the arraignment to set the litigation schedule, the calendar that governs the rest of the case.
| Set at arraignment | Examples |
|---|---|
| Motions deadlines | When pretrial motions must be filed |
| Future sessions | Dates for motions hearings and trial |
| Trial date | The anticipated date the case is tried |
These dates organize the discovery, motions practice, and pretrial litigation that follow.
The short version: an arraignment reads or waives the charges, advises the accused of rights, captures the forum election, allows pleas to be entered or deferred, and sets the schedule. It does not decide the case.
Because forum election and the timing of any plea are strategic decisions that turn on the specific charges, the evidence, and any negotiations, they are ordinarily worked out with counsel rather than improvised in the courtroom, and anyone facing a court-martial should consult a qualified military defense attorney about their situation. Read against its title, the arraignment is exactly this: the opening procedural session where identity, charges, rights, forum, plea timing, and the schedule are established, and where the substance of the case is set up rather than settled.