Author Topic: NYT: Obama's Comments on Sexual Assault Cases in Military Backfire  (Read 712 times)

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Offline flowers

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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/07/14/NYT-Obama-s-Comments-on-Sexual-Assault-in-Military-Backfire

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When President Barack Obama harshly criticized members of the military who commit sexual assault, saying that they should be "“prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” he inadvertently created “unlawful command influence" throughout the armed forces that will be "certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault," Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times reports.

Steinhauer notes:

    “Unlawful command influence” refers to actions of commanders that could be interpreted by jurors as an attempt to influence a court-martial, in effect ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is considered the most powerful person to wield such influence.

    The president’s remarks might have seemed innocuous to civilians, but military law experts say defense lawyers will seize on the president’s call for an automatic dishonorable discharge, the most severe discharge available in a court-martial, arguing that his words will affect their cases.

A dishonorable discharge may sound harsh--but it is far less harsh than conviction by a military court and sentencing to a term in military prison. The president's remarks have already affected several trials, allowing defense lawyers to move for dismissal, arguing that the president's remarks tainted their cases.

It would not be the first time that President Obama, attempting to speak up for the victims of specific crimes, had thwarted or affected the course of justice. In 2009, he said that


Offline Rapunzel

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Re: NYT: Obama's Comments on Sexual Assault Cases in Military Backfire
« Reply #1 on: July 15, 2013, 04:33:49 pm »
 He's incapable of keeping his mouth shut.
�The time is now near at hand which must probably determine, whether Americans are to be, Freemen, or Slaves.� G Washington July 2, 1776

Offline GourmetDan

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Re: NYT: Obama's Comments on Sexual Assault Cases in Military Backfire
« Reply #2 on: July 15, 2013, 04:40:02 pm »
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"It would not be the first time that President Obama, attempting to speak up for the victims of specific crimes, had thwarted or affected the course of justice."

Nor will it be the last.

Quite impressive for the 'smartest president ever'...


« Last Edit: July 15, 2013, 04:40:38 pm by GourmetDan »
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