N.Y. Daily News editorial on the Sinclair case

The New York Daily News has this to say in "No hope of justice," an editorial about the court-martial of Army Brigadier General Jeffrey A. Sinclair:

[Sen. Claire] McCaskill’s insistence that prosecutors believed Sinclair’s accuser highlights that the military system for handling sexual assault allegations is thoroughly discredited. Its prosecutors cannot be trusted to proceed on behalf of accusers based solely on the facts and the law — or to move against the accused on the same basis.

Placing authority in independent prosecutors and outside of the chain of command — as Canada, Israel and German[y] have done — would clear the murk that has kept victims from justice and the accused from fair trial.

Suggestion for the UN Human Rights Committee

The UN Human Rights Committee has released a useful summary of its consideration of the fourth report on United States implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Perhaps the next reporting cycle could address U.S. compliance with the ICCPR with respect to the administration of military justice.

Fighting words from Sen. Gillibrand

Sen. Kerstin Gillibrand

Undaunted by her failure to muster the 60 votes needed for cloture on her Military Justice Improvement Act of 2014, Sen. Kerstin Gillibrand (D.-NY) offers this op-ed in the Daily News. Here's the gist:

 "But we will not walk away. We will work harder than ever in the coming year to strengthen our military by taking sexual assaults and other major crimes out of the chain of command — so that no victim is compelled to turn to his or her boss to ask for justice."

And this:

"We need every case to move forward based solely on the evidence and judged solely on the merits, not political pressure or other non-legal considerations."

Someone should do a book review of the Code Committee's FY13 Annual Report

You won't read it here, but someone should actually do one. It's a fascinating snapshot. Take a look. The caseload charts show the anemic master docket of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, which conducted 36 oral arguments in all of FY13 (at 21). The report of the Judge Advocate General of the Army includes this startling information (at 41):

"In 2013, state courts-martial continued at a modest pace with four states conducting a total of eight general courts-martial (GCM[s]) and three special courts-martial (SPCM[s]). Seven of the eight GCMs and one SPCM resulted in acquittals, were withdrawn after defense motions, or were overturned on appeal."

What's that about? The Army report also refers (at 34) to the fact that the General Officer Legal Orientation Course (GOLO) "is provided individually to General Officers." It would be interesting to see the teaching materials for that course. Oddly, all of the other legal orientation courses "are taught using a sexual assault fact pattern."

The report of the Judge Advocate General of the Navy has a section on the Assistant Judge Advocate General, Chief Judge, Department of the Navy (CJDON). It explains (at 63) that "[t]he CJDON is selected by a competitive flag selection board and serves for three years, with appointment as the Assistant Judge Advocate General of the Navy in the third year of service." But wait a minute. Navy and Marine trial and appellate military judges don't have even the regulation-based, loopholey three-year terms enjoyed by Army and Coast Guard judges. If the CJDON can have a fixed term, why not the rest of the Navy-Marine bench? Or is the "serves for three years" simply a custom without any formal guarantee?

Feel free to comment.

Military justice reform in Taiwan (pt. 1)

The China Post has this follow-up story by Joseph Yeh on military justice reform in Taiwan. Apparently there is more to come on this evolving story. From part 1 of what promises to be a series . . .

"We didn't know it back then, but the 24-year-old conscript named Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) and his tragic death would ultimately become a driving force leading to a series of reforms in the [Republic of China] armed forces and the nation's court martial system."