Racial disparities in U.S. military justice

The Christian Science Monitor published a feature "Why do Black troops face a harsher form of military justice?" 

The article describes disturbing incidents of racial disparities, including an African-American Airman court-martialed and convicted for being six minutes late to a meeting, and post-WW2 statistics in Europe that African-American servicemembers comprised 10% of the force but 80% of courts-martial.  

Then on the sunny side: 

One encouraging conclusion of the GAO report is that in terms of convictions and punishment, there is no statistical difference between Black and white troops, “except for Black service members in the Navy were less likely to be dismissed or discharged after a conviction,” Brenda Farrell, director of the GAO’s Defense Capabilities and Management Team, told lawmakers.

In other words, she said, though Black service members were more likely to be prosecuted, they were no more likely – and in some cases, less likely – to be convicted. “That makes sense from what I saw,” Major Gray says. “Once you make it to the court-martial and have all eyes on it, it evens out. It shows that the system works – not always, but mostly.”

This would appear to show that military judicial mechanisms have more capably identified potential racial bias than military prosecutorial mechanisms. 

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