Transparency and child-victim sex cases

"The American justice system is a model of openness. In most cases, the public can easily watch trials, get transcripts and view most other materials involved in a case.

"Unless we're talking about a military trial, where the rules and public access can be decidedly different. As an Associated Press investigation recently found, this can be a problem, especially when the victims aren't soldiers, but rather are children. . . .

"While military leaders can make a good case for a criminal-justice system that is separate and different from the civilian courts, what can't be justified is a lack of transparency. That's especially true for cases that involve civilian victims, and all the more so when those victims are children.

"It's clear that further reforms in the military-justice system are in order."

From this Nov. 23, 2015 editorial in the Fayetteville Observer