The military is failing to comply with federal law in sexual assault cases, new watchdog report finds
"In many of the cases, 'the assigned prosecutor was an inexperienced, junior prosecutor without specialized training in special victim cases,' according to the report, which is expected to be released publicly this week after review by the branches of the military. That failure to assign specially trained prosecutors meant investigators and commanders 'may not have received the best legal advice with respect to critical investigative steps and case adjudication decisions,' the report adds. The Air Force fared the worst: 94% of survivors were represented by prosecutors not trained to handle sexual assault and domestic violence cases. The Army and Navy both failed to provide prosecutors who were adequately trained in 59% of cases; the Marine Corps fell short of the requirement 30% of the time." 11/9/2021 08:43:20 am
How far do we need to stretch to extend this news report a modicum of credibility? Actually, 100% of military victims/survivors are not "represented by prosecutors not trained to handle sexual assault and domestic violence case." Anyone in our community ever hear of a survivor being represented by a prosecutor?
Concerned Citizen
11/9/2021 08:51:17 am
I see that the report isn't publicly available (curious how the news media got it), but I am curious as to how they define having a "specially trained prosecutor" "assigned" . Seems like a lot of OSJAs I have come across or heard about have a policy of requiring an SVP to review any of these cases. Do they mean that they are required to do every step and a trial counsel/military justice advisor can't help out at all?
Nathan Freeburg
11/9/2021 09:22:56 am
I’m loathe to defend the services but this reporting is clearly based on a muddle. Just because the SVP/CTC or what have you isn’t formally detailed to the case until trial doesn’t mean that they weren’t involved all along. Ultimately, the services are going to have to establish pure MJ career tracks in order to provide the experience levels Congress wants. This will be more of an issue for some services than others.
Donald G Rehkopf, Jr.
11/9/2021 09:45:55 am
Not to stir the proverbial pot here, because I agree with the above commentators, but I wonder how old the data is? Since the SVC program ramped up, anecdotally, I've seen SVC's far more experienced than many (but certainly not all) TC's. And then again, toss in the inexperience level of the military DC's . . . .
Lone Bear
11/9/2021 10:13:27 pm
There is a policy decision made by some services to put the more experienced litigators in VLC billets than in TC billets. 11/9/2021 12:20:21 pm
No one should go through trials and tribulations alone. So it's nice to see that Canada's "Battle Buddy" to the south is experiencing similar misleading and inflammatory reporting on these issues, that we have seen in Canada. We're here for you. That likely won't help much, but at least you won't have to go through this alone.
Concerned VLC
11/9/2021 01:12:02 pm
While I don’t care to delve into definitions, the accuracy of a prosecutor representing a victim, or the true level of involvement of an SVIP qualified TC, the problem begins in the investigation.
Also concerned
11/9/2021 02:37:26 pm
While I’m sure this is well intended, I don’t follow the logic.
Nathan Freeburg
11/9/2021 05:07:03 pm
I think it was sarcasm.
Lone Bear
11/9/2021 10:11:18 pm
Don’t know that sharing a full ROI with a witness’s attorney is a good idea, even if it’s the victim. Not sure what that accomplishes other than a fertile ground for cross examination and a chance for some witnesses to alter their statements to fit the evidence.
Concerned Citizen
11/9/2021 01:52:10 pm
How is the Military Justice system set up to "suppress dissent"?
Brenner M. Fissell
11/9/2021 01:58:44 pm
You tell us. You're the one afraid to use your real name on a blog.
Anonymous
11/9/2021 10:02:49 pm
Brenner,
Concerned Citizen
11/10/2021 06:16:09 am
The commenter eferenced "victims voices" as being specifically what they meant by suppressing dissent. Just curious what they meant by that. As a general proposition, sure, seems like what you would expect in any hierarchical, authoritarian organization overseen by politicians.
Brenner
11/10/2021 09:32:04 am
@CC—sounds about right. And for that reason we are fine with anonymous comments.
Poster
11/10/2021 02:27:37 pm
So, what do we do about the suppression of dissent? Comments are closed.
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