by Nancy Montgomery
• Stars and Stripes • January 13, 2022
An Army judge’s novel ruling to require a unanimous guilty verdict in an upcoming court-martial has drawn an array of characterizations by military law experts: totally wrong, partially right, rogue and brave among them.
But all the analysts interviewed for this story agreed on one thing. They said the ruling will most likely be overturned by an appellate court.
Col. Charles Pritchard, a judge in Kaiserslautern, Germany, issued the 16-page ruling this month in response to a motion by the defense for Lt. Col. Andrew Dial, who is charged with three counts of sexual assault.
“This judge obviously put a great deal of effort into it and used his noggin,” said Eugene Fidell, a military law professor at New York University. “It takes some courage for a judge to do this, so my hat’s off to him.”
