Righting military justice
BY RACHEL VANLANDINGHAM AND DON CHRISTENSEN, OPINION CONTRIBUTORS - 08/11/23 3:30
The military’s failure to end rampant sexual assault and hold offenders accountable put its flawed military justice system in the spotlight for the last decade. During this time, the military vigorously resisted calls to modernize its archaic process, claiming that commanders were better suited than military lawyers to make traditional criminal prosecution decisions. Yet these claims rang hollow as sexual assault rates spiked to all-time highs while conviction rates plummeted.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Congress finally passed fundamental reform in December 2021. However, the watered-down legislation, instead of transferring prosecution authority to independent military lawyers for all serious crimes as Gillibrand proposed, did so for only some so-called “covered offenses,” importantly including sexual assault and murder. The resultant two-track system leaves the disposition of most UCMJ crimes with the chain of the command; this is why we have repeatedly highlighted that this historic reform, while vital progress, remains an incomplete step forward.
President Biden recently approved a raft of new military justice regulations; they implement not only the 2021 reform, but several years’ worth of congressionally-mandated changes. The White House hopes, as do we, that these new procedures will “significantly strengthen how the military handles sexual assault cases” and “better protect victims and ensure prosecutorial decisions are fully independent from the chain of the command.” Given that a lack of trust in command is frequently cited for not reporting sexual assaults, this promise that covered offenses will be free from command influence is indeed paramount to the reform’s success.
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4149393-righting-military-justice/
