Obama Remark Complicates Military Sexual Assault Trials
[Obama Remark
Complicates Military Sexual Assault Trials
by Jennifer Steinhauer Washington] "When
President Obama proclaimed that those who
commit sexual assault in the military should
be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions,
court-martialed, fired, dishonorably
discharged,” it had an effect he did not
intend: muddying legal cases across the
country.
In at least a dozen sexual assault cases
since the president’s remarks at the White
House in May, judges and defense lawyers
have said that Mr. Obama’s words as
commander in chief amounted to “unlawful
command influence,” tainting trials as a
result. Military law experts said that those
cases were only the beginning and that the
president’s remarks were certain to
complicate almost all prosecutions for
sexual assault.
“Unlawful command influence” refers to
actions of commanders that could be
interpreted by jurors as an attempt to
influence a court-martial, in effect
ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as
commander in chief of the armed forces, is
considered the most powerful person to wield
such influence.
The president’s remarks might have seemed
innocuous to civilians, but military law
experts say defense lawyers will seize on
the president’s call for an automatic
dishonorable discharge, the most severe
discharge available in a court-martial,
arguing that his words will affect their
cases.
“His remarks were more specific than I’ve
ever heard a commander in chief get,” said
Thomas J. Romig, a former judge advocate
general of the Army and the dean of the
Washburn University School of Law in Topeka,
Kan. “When the commander in chief says they
will be dishonorably discharged, that’s a
pretty specific message. Every military
defense counsel will make a motion about
this...” Full text:
Obama Remark Complicates Military Sexual
Assault Trials
2 Thess 2:7
