Army military justice reform unfolds, Congress monitoring
By Davis Winkie
Dec 29, 2022
By the end of 2023, the Army’s new independent prosecutorial office dedicated to handling complex, severe cases will assume full control over those cases under changes imposed by Congress in recent years, taking such decisions out of commanders’ hands.
The service’s new Office of Special Trial Counsel will be led by Brig. Gen. Warren L. Wells, officials announced in December. Wells is an experienced Army judge advocate, and Army Secretary Christine Wormuth (to whom Wells will directly report) described him as “the experienced leader the Army needs to lead the Office of Special Trial Counsel and ensure its independent oversight of the Army’s most complex cases.”
But there’s work yet to do before Wells’ office is ready to start prosecuting covered crimes, which include murder, manslaughter, rape and sexual assault, rape of a child, sexual assault of a child, other sexual misconduct, kidnapping, domestic violence, stalking, retaliation, child pornography and wrongful broadcast. Lawmakers also may add sexual harassment to that list, according to the most recent draft of the fiscal 2023 defense policy bill.
https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2022/12/29/army-military-justice-reform-unfolds-congress-monitoring/