The military justice system has problems. Here’s how to fix them.
Steven Arango and Brandon Essig "The military justice system is underfunded and under-resourced, especially when compared to the federal justice system." Comment: The authors, who practiced in the Marine Corps, prosecuted crimes in a jurisdiction with a population of ~180,000. The smallest federal USAO is likely that covering Wyoming--population ~580,000. Per DOJ, "The attorney staff in the criminal division [of the District of Wyoming] is comprised of a Criminal Chief and 13 Assistant United States Attorneys (AUSAs)." Does anyone know how many TCs there are in the Marine Corps?
former TC
11/2/2021 04:59:40 pm
Seems like your average AUSA's world of work is a lot different than your average TC's. Also, how many paralegals and support staff does the Wyoming criminal division have? How about the federal court's staff--how many people work there? Do AUSAs have to deal with making sure all the jurors show up and assemble records of trial?
Dan
11/2/2021 05:23:16 pm
The scarcity of resources described such as prosecutors needing to hand out pen and paper to panel members is a criticism of Marine Corps culture itself. As better explained by General Krulak in First to Fight, Marines are expected to do more with less and this is reflected every year in their annual budget. With budgets already stretched thin, senior leaders have no incentive or flexibility to divert resources away from actual operations to support a military justice system. This is never going to change.
Nathan Freeburg
11/2/2021 09:29:53 pm
Definitely some truth to this. the Corps is a world to itself. they also have commanders doing really weird things in the MJ world that the lawyers are then expected to support. very very different culture from the other services.
1984
11/5/2021 12:14:23 am
I agree, and a step further.
Concerned Citizen
11/2/2021 09:07:42 pm
Shouldn't you include all the state/local prosecutors in Wyoming? Guessing the AUSA office doesn't prosecute DV, drug use, smarting off to your boss, etc.
Nathan Freeburg
11/2/2021 09:27:53 pm
yup. apples and oranges.
Brenner M. Fissell
11/2/2021 09:29:16 pm
Read the article. It is the authors who compare the system to the Feds. 11/2/2021 11:46:30 pm
"But even if Congress addresses some of these issues through policy changes, one looming problem will remain: The military justice system is underfunded and under-resourced, especially when compared to the federal justice system." 11/3/2021 06:58:54 am
Perhaps if there was a court administrator and staff the TC wouldn't have to be doing administrativa and could focus on how to do a trial better. 11/3/2021 10:15:03 am
Phil,
Scott
11/3/2021 08:33:46 am
The author makes some good points.
Brenner M. Fissell
11/3/2021 11:10:53 am
Brian: You have not yet worn out your welcome, but you are monopolizing the conversation, and should adjust course accordingly.
Brian L. Cox
11/3/2021 12:07:43 pm
Brenner, 11/3/2021 12:33:04 pm
Well, since Brian isn't wearing out his welcome, I'll chime in with a Canadian perspective. The Canadian Forces (Regular and Reserve) is a little smaller than the USMC (Active Duty). The CF experiences, on average, around 70 courts martial per year. That has varied significantly over the past few years due to both the COVID-19 pandemic, and various 'interruptions' due to what can be characterized, generally, as jurisdictional challenges. But 70/annum is a reasonable figure.
Brenner M. Fissell
11/3/2021 06:16:18 pm
has anyone been able to track down data on number of prosecutors?
DON CHRISTENSEN
11/3/2021 07:09:37 pm
According to the Marines, they have 69 defense counsel and 71 trial counsel in addition to 41 military justice chiefs. In FY20 they tried 123 GCMs, 135 SPCMs and 56 summary courts. Thats about 4.5 courts per trial counsel per year counting summary courts. No idea how many of those 4.5 courts per year were litigated.
Brenner
11/4/2021 08:19:56 am
Thanks Don. Now, if someone could find the number of prosecutors working in the City of Providence RI, we could have a nice comparative analysis with the marine corps. 11/4/2021 10:26:42 am
Upon information and belief, we can say,
Roger Clarvin
11/4/2021 08:14:03 pm
On some level, this is just so much whining. Everyone, everywhere has too much to do and not enough time to do it. The caseloads as a military prosecutor are really not that bad. (No! Yours wasn't. I'm telling you, it really wasn't!) 11/5/2021 08:29:15 am
Roger, Roger. Comments are closed.
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