Washington Post Editorial: The military must better serve victims of sexual assault
The Washington Post Editorial Board comes out in support of Senator Gillibrand’s Military Justice Improvement Act:
The Pentagon has undertaken a series of initiatives to improve its response to sexual assault. These include the extension of an Air Force program to provide victims with their own legal counsel; a mandate that only judge advocates act as investigating officers; and expedition of transfers for victims seeking reassignment. Last week the Joint Service Committee adopted a proposal — which must be endorsed by President Obama — that would afford better protections for victims testifying at Article 32 hearings.
While these steps are commendable, a bolder approach is needed. Congress should revisit the proposal by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) that would fix a major flaw of the system by taking sexual abuse cases outside a victim’s chain of command. Under the measure, the authority to investigate and prosecute cases would be made by impartial military prosecutors instead of senior officers with no legal training but inherent conflicts of interest. It’s time, as Ms. Gillibrand argued, to “listen to the victims and create an independent, objective and non-biased military justice system.”
