Editorial: A step forward on sexual assault
The Miami Herald Editorial Board writes:
The collapse of the sexual-assault trial of Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sinclair in Fort Bragg highlights the U.S. military’s problematic and arbitrary record on meting out justice in such cases.
The defense claims undue pressure to prosecute a high-ranking officer came from top military brass. The prosecution has had doubts about the veracity of the accuser. All this bolsters New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s cogent argument for removing the authority of military commanders to prosecute sexual-assault cases and giving that power to military lawyers outside the chain of command.
Sen. Gillibrand’s bill failed to overcome a Senate filibuster by just five votes earlier this month. Instead, the Senate last week showed extraordinary accord in approving, 97-0, another bill, sponsored by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., that keeps commanders in charge of these cases but gives the civilian secretary of a military service the final say in cases where a prosecutor wants to move ahead with a sexual-assault case but the commander disagrees.
