Sexual assault prosecutions officially out of the chain of command
By Meghann Myers
Dec 28, 2023
Military commanders are no longer in charge of deciding whether to prosecute a dozen major crimes, including sexual assault and domestic violence, as each of the services officially opened their offices of special trial counsel on Thursday.
The move upends the traditional chain-of-command-centric military justice system, where commanders have had the authority to make decisions on whether to proceed with criminal cases.
Standing up of these special trial counsels means that, going forward, only trained, designated attorneys will decide whether to press charges or send a case to trial.
The move is the culmination of more than a dozen years of effort by members of Congress, who in late 2021 voted to install independent prosecutors to make decisions about not only sexual assault cases, but murder, manslaughter, domestic violence, child abuse and more, 14 crimes in all.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2023/12/28/sexual-assault-prosecutions-officially-out-of-the-chain-of-command/
