MSNBC: Lawmakers: No more character attacks on victims of military sexual assault
Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish is featured in this story from MSNBC:
After a series of hearings this summer at which top military brass testified in favor of keeping prosecutions within the chain of command, and at which victims detailed their experiences with the justice and veteran’s health care system, the Senate will decide which plan will be included in this year’s defense authorization bill this fall. A military panel is reviewing the military justice system as a whole and could recommend changes to the Article 32 process, but that process will not be complete for months and implementation could be slow.
Survivor advocacy groups support changing the system to make the process more closely resemble a civilian grand jury; Article 32 hearings have no civilian equivalent. “The Article 32 proceedings were originally created to function as a probable cause hearing, but have essentially become an opportunity for the defense to try the case twice,” said Nancy Parrish, president of Protect Our Defenders said in a statement. “The current system is not designed to protect victims or achieve justice-just the opposite: it has become another means of intimidating the victim, or at a minimum, lessening the likelihood that justice will prevail in their cases.”
