Improve response to sex crimes in the military
From an op-ed in the Missoulian supporting Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) Military Justice Improvement Act:
It is our belief that provisions New York’s Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced in 2013 and 2014, if enacted, would improve reporting, apprehension and competent prosecution of sexual offenders. The most important of these provisions is to shift the responsibility for prosecuting sexual offenses from individual commands to independent military courts. The command, which must maintain “good order and discipline,” would relinquish trial of sexual offenses to prosecutors trained in the law and who are accustomed to working with “evidence,” and systematically distance the command from prosecuting a colleague or valued member of the team.
