The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: flowers on July 15, 2013, 03:34:18 pm
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http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/07/14/NYT-Obama-s-Comments-on-Sexual-Assault-in-Military-Backfire
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
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He's incapable of keeping his mouth shut.
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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'...