Bill to remove commanders from sex assault prosecutions fails
Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish is featured in this article from Stars and Stripes:
“It is a travesty that this very practical, conservative measure, supported by a substantial majority of the Senate and 60 percent of Americans was blocked by a procedural filibuster,” said Nancy Parrish, president of Protect our defenders. “We may have lost this battle due to political maneuverings, but effective reform will be accomplished. It is only a matter of time.”
The debate came at a time of growing frustration and outrage over the military’s seeming inability to reverse an apparently growing number of sexual assaults in the ranks. About 5,400 instances of sexual assault or “unwanted sexual contact” were reported within the U.S. military last fiscal year, a 60 percent rise from 2012, the Pentagon said last week.
Also Thursday, Stars and Stripes reported that the Army had recently suspended its top sexual assault prosecutor, Lt. Col. Joseph “Jay” Morse, after another sexual assault prosecutor said he had groped and tried to kiss her against her will at a sexual assault legal conference in 2011.
