AF chief prosecutor leaves service for victims advocacy group
Retired Colonel Don Christensen, the Air Force’s former chief prosecutor and newly announced president of Protect Our Defenders is featured in this Air Force Times story:
“Your rapists’ boss should not decide whether to investigate or prosecute a sexual assault allegation or pick the jury,” Christensen said in his statement. “The decision to prosecute is a legal decision that must be entrusted to professional, legally trained prosecutors, the jury should be randomly selected, not hand picked by the accused’s commander. The military justice system must be changed. I am leaving the institution I love and joining Protect Our Defenders in order to fix this broken system.”
The former prosecutor will serve as the nonprofit’s president.
In an interview with Air Force Times last April, Christensen described sitting next to a colleague when he learned Franklin had overturned Wilkerson’s conviction.
“I turned to [him] and said, ‘We just lost military justice.’ I never thought [Franklin] would do this. I never saw this coming. I knew this would have huge, huge repercussions,” he recalled.
