Senate OKs bill to combat military sexual assault
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill late Monday making big changes in the military justice system to deal with sexual assault, including scrapping the nearly century-old practice of using a "good soldier defense" to raise doubts that a crime has been committed.
On a vote of 97-0, the Senate rallied behind a bipartisan plan crafted by three female senators - Democrat Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Republicans Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Deb Fischer of Nebraska - that would impose a half-dozen changes to combat the pervasive problem of rape and sexual offenses that Pentagon leaders have likened to a cancer within the ranks.
...snip...
The new legislation would change the military rules of evidence to prohibit the accused from using good military character as an element of his defense in court-martial proceedings unless it was directly relevant to the alleged crime. The "good soldier defense" could encompass a defendant's military record of reliability, dependability, professionalism and reputation as an individual who could be counted on in war and peacetime.
Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MILITARY_SEXUAL_ASSAULT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-03-10-19-35-28
MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)sheshe2
(83,786 posts)DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)The change is setting off debate in military legal-eagle circles. A military accused isnt accused of violating just any penal code, argues a military attorney on a military-justice website. Hes accused of violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In that context, I see his military character as indisputably `pertinent.
Others disagree. Character evidence that a person is `law abiding or a `good citizen has long been prohibited in civilian courts, a second poster maintains. If youre charged with raping your neighbor in federal court you dont get to introduce evidence that youre a `good father, `good carpenter, or a `good citizen under the theory that good fathers (etc.) are less likely to rape.
The ability to present evidence that the accused is a good soldier has long been a valuable tool for military defense lawyers at courts-martial and other legal proceedings. The U.S. military justice system, by and large, has gone along. Military courts are staunch supporters of such evidence as a relevant character trait to nearly every offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, writes Army Major Rebecca Kliem on the Armys staff judge advocate schools blog, where she is an associate professor of criminal law.
Given this expansiveness, imagination is the only limit of what demonstrates `good military character; any desirable trait in a service member counts, Army lawyer and Major Franklin Rosenblatt argued in the Army Lawyer journal in 2010. In application, character witnesses are commonly called to testify about their willingness to deploy with an accused. Other allowable `good military character testimony includes that an accused is `dedicated to being a good drill instructor, lawful, easygoing, dependable, and well liked. With so many traits to choose from that are permissible and admissible, nearly anyone can qualify as a `good Soldier.
Nearly 20 years ago, an Army lawyer warned that the good-soldier defense could let the defendants attorneys smother the fact-finder with good soldier evidence regardless of the charges. And it tended to favor a certain kind of soldier, he noted: The more senior the accused, the more likely the defense can craft some version of the good soldier defense.
Four years later, the Armys top enlisted soldier, Sergeant Major of the Army Gene McKinney, employed the good-soldier defense after he had been charged with sexually harassing women who worked with him. McKinneys adroit use of his past service as a `good soldier was widely credited for his acquittal on all charges of sexual misconduct, in spite of damning testimony from six servicewomen about his alleged harassment, Elizabeth Hillman, now the president of the National Institute of Military Justice, wrote in 1999. The good soldier defense advances the perception that one of the privileges of high rank and long service is immunity from conviction at court-martial, said Hillman, now a professor of law and dean at the Hastings College of Law at the University of California.
Response to DreamGypsy (Reply #3)
Post removed
2abigbman
(29 posts)You are part of the problem. It is rape; sexual assault. That is why women will not report being raped. It is not their fault that they want to serve their country in combat. Part of the deal was not being used as a sexual plaything for the chain of command. Other militaries (Israeli) have had women in their combat units for decades without this problem. Are you saying that you only want men to fight. Well bret do what that fictional character also said "Pick up a weapon and stand a post on the wall" and You cant handle the truth was the first words in that soliloquy. And that officer was guilty of covering up a crime. Issuing illegal orders and obstruction of justice. Exactly the person you would chose as an example of a good use of the chain of command
cosmicone
(11,014 posts)cosmicone
(11,014 posts)Women work side by side men in several critical fields like trauma surgery. It is very rare for women to scream "rape" even when it happens let alone when it doesn't happen.
It is laughable to think that a female soldier would rather yell rape than serve her country.
Remember, that line you quoted from "A few good men" was actually a caricature of how military brass gets away with crime.