Military justice proceedings occasioned by the fatal accidents involving USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald are certain to grip the attention not only of observers within the Navy but in the other armed forces and in the country as a whole. It may be well to bear in mind, as always, the presumption of innocence and await a fuller development of the facts and circumstances before reaching conclusions not only as to anyone's culpability but also as to the wisdom of invoking the UCMJ process.
John Byron — More generally, the Naval Institute's blog and news pages are an excellent on-going resource in tracking this rolling disaster in the WestPac (and the entire) navy.
ReplyDeleteCompare the "Seaman's Manslaughter Statute." Section 12 of the Act of July 7, 1838, now codified at 18 USC section 1115, makes negligence or inattention by the master of a vessel a crime punishable by imprisonment for ten years when that negligence or inattention leads to the death of any person on board. See, e.g. United States v. Lussier, 2013 WL 673752 (D. Minn. 2013).
ReplyDeleteThe legal history of the 1975 collision of the destroyer USS Belknap and the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy is instructive, especially the memorandum published by Admiral Holloway, the Chief of Naval Operations, after courts martial of the Belknap's commanding officer and her officer of the deck. It was republished yesterday at the blog of the U.S. Naval Institute. See https://blog.usni.org/.
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