PRESS RELEASE: Air Force Pilot Convicted of Sexual Assault to Retire
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 2, 2013 Contact: Brian Purchia, , brian@protectourdefenders.com
*** PRESS RELEASE ***
AIR FORCE PILOT CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT TO RETIRE – CONVICTION OVERTURNED BY FELLOW PILOT; PROTECT OUR DEFENDERS CALLS FOR LT GEN. FRANKLIN TO BE REMOVED
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Air Force confirmed that Lt Col James Wilkerson, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a civilian contractor at Aviano Air Base in Italy will retire. After a lengthy trial, Wilkerson was dismissed from the Air Force and sentenced to one year in jail. However, Lt Gen Craig Franklin, the convening authority, overturned the conviction and freed his fellow pilot, reinstating him back into the Air Force against the recommendation of his own legal counsel. Afterwards, Franklin released a letter explaining his reasoning, which demonstrated an ignorance of the facts and a bias towards Wilkerson, who he described as a “doting father and husband.” Wilkerson will now be allowed to retire with some benefits, while Franklin and those that supported his decision remain in the military.
“It is about time Wilkerson was at least held accountable for some of his reprehensible behavior. We hope this brings some solace to the Aviano victim and her family even though she was denied justice,” said Nancy Parrish, President of Protect Our Defenders. “The fact remains that Lt Gen Franklin, without any reasonable basis, egregiously set aside Wilkerson’s conviction. Because Franklin took this irresponsible action Wilkerson will not be on a sex offender list. The strong bias and conflict of interest demonstrated by Franklin and his boss, Gen. Breedlove point to the need for an independent and impartial justice system, where commanders cannot hijack the justice process.”
Following Lt Gen Franklin’s decision, Protect Our Defenders brought the Wilkerson victim to meet with elected officials ahead of a March Senate hearing on the ongoing epidemic and her case. The advocacy group also launched a campaign demanding President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel remove Franklin and Wilkerson from the service, andprotested outside Davis-Monthan Air Force Base calling for the removal of the two officers, when Wilkerson was re-assigned to the victim’s family’s hometown.
Meanwhile, calls quickly grew to remove the commander’s authority to overturn verdicts, which the Defense Department recently agreed to adopt. However, commanders still have the authority over these cases, including the ability to reduce sentences at their discretion – a remaining danger to justice and potentially as damaging as overturning a conviction.
Members of Congress, from both parties condemned Franklin’s action. “Franklin clearly substituted his own independent judgment for that of the convened fact-finding panel,” said Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“This [Franklin’s explanation] letter, is filled with selective reasoning and assumptions from someone with no legal training, and it’s appalling that the reasoning spelled out in the letter served as the basis to overturn a jury verdict in this case,” said Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
Five months ago, Wilkerson’s victim asked the Air Force to provide documents surrounding the trial and post-trial activities. The military failed to comply with multiple legal deadlines. It was only after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped in and demanded a response that the documents were finally released. The recently released emails send a chilling reminder to victims of sexual assault in our military, who are thinking about coming forward, that military brass will go to extreme lengths to protect the status quo.
In the emails, pleas from the Commander of the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano, Brig Gen Scott Zobrist, who was Wilkerson’s immediate commander, urging Lt Gen Franklin to not overturn Wilkerson’s aggravated sexual assault conviction, were ignored.
“That would be absolutely devastating in so many ways that I cannot even begin to consider it,” Zobrist wrote in a Feb. 19, 2013 email. “Having Wilkerson back on active duty at Aviano, even for one day, would…have a huge negative impact on morale, send a very negative message about how seriously we take sexual assault in the AF, and potentially call into question the effectiveness of our UCMJ system in general.”
Lt Gen Franklin dismissed the warnings and instead got support from his chain of command to dismiss the jury’s findings and toss out the conviction. In email exchanges, the Air Force Commander in Europe, Gen Mark Breedlove stated that he agreed with Franklin regarding overturning the conviction.
General Breedlove wrote “He [Franklin] and I have discussed in depth the meaning and the possible blow back. I stand behind his decision.” [Click here for more excerpts from the FOIA release.] Furthermore, on March 15, before 500 majors, rising Commanders Breedlove defended Franklin’s actions and criticized the prosecution and the court.
With Breedlove’s blessing, Lt Gen Franklin set aside justice and started a full court press to get Wilkerson promoted and flying again.
“I intend to get him back to a flying assignment ASAP (away from Aviano.) Please make sure Col Wilkerson knows he can contact me or his OG… about the way ahead for his next assignment,” wrote Franklin. “Getting him reunited with is family is the priority for the next few days. Certainly after he and [his wife] have had a chance to discuss it, we will see what he wants to do next.”
This mockery of justice created an international uproar and calls for fundamental reforms to the broken military justice system. Earlier this year, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) to move the decision to prosecute and adjudicate sexual assault cases from an often-biased chain of command — a step toward creating an independent and impartial military justice system. This common sense reform has widespread bipartisan backing, with 46 senators publicly supporting the bill, including Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Ted Cruz (D-TX), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY).
On the House side, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) has introduced the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act (Stop Act). This bill removes authority for handling these cases from the chain of command. The legislation currently has 148 co-sponsors. In March 2013, Rep. Speier introduced the Military Judicial Reform Act, which prohibits a convening authority (the person taking action on the findings of a court-martial), from modifying the courts findings or sentence. Thus far the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has failed to allow the bill to come before the committee for a vote.
Pentagon officials have furiously objected to the creation of an independent and impartial justice system, saying it will negatively impact “good order and discipline,” even though there is no evidence of this from our many allies with similar systems. Last week, the director-general of the Australian Defence Force Legal Service who was asked to testify at a hearing on the epidemic said they faced same set of arguments from military leaders.
“It’s a little bit like when we opened up [to] gays in military in the late ’80s,” Cronan said. “There was a lot of concern at that time that there’d be issues. But not surprisingly, there haven’t been any.”
According to the Pentagon’s 2012 SAPRO report, 25% of victims indicated the offender is someone in their chain of command. Fifty percent of female victims stated they did not report the crime because they believed nothing would be done. Of those few who did report – 60% stated they were retaliated against.
“Lt Col James Wikerson should be behind bars and a registered sex offender. With the support of top military brass, fellow Air Force pilot Lt Gen Craig Franklin made sure that Wilkerson’s victim will never see justice,” said Parrish. “What kind of message does this send to survivors that have been forced to retire or kicked out of the military with errant medical diagnoses and are denied benefits or honor? Our brave sons and daughters, brothers and sisters who risk their lives to protect us deserve to receive justice equal that which civilians are entitled – through a professional, independent, impartial military justice system led by trained military prosecutors, instead of being left in the hands of an often biased chain of command.
This past spring, Wilkerson was reassigned, with his rank of Lt Colonel, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, where many of Wilkerson’s victim’s family reside. Meanwhile. Franklin remains in the Air Force.
—
Air Force Times: Lt. col. whose overturned sex assault case sparked outrage will retire
Find out more about the “Educate Your State” initiative here
Florida Times-Union: Delores Barr Weaver backs national effort to support victims of military sexual assault
Politico: Military sex assault bill stalled by Syria
http://www.politico.com/story/
San Antonio Express-News: Hagel misses important opportunity
New York Times: Revisiting the Military’s Tailhook Scandal
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/
McClatchy News: Senators differ on role for military brass in sexual assault cases
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Stars & Stripes: Emails show general warned against reversing Wilkerson verdict
http://www.stripes.com/news/
Protect Our Defenders Point by Point Rebuttal of Gen Franklin’s 18 Reasons for Overturning Col Wilkerson’s Sexual Assault Conviction
Associated Press: Air Force Officer Transfer Draws Protest
http://bigstory.ap.org/
About Protect Our Defenders: Protect Our Defenders is a human rights organization. We seek to honor, support and give voice to the brave women and men in uniform who have been sexually assaulted while serving their country, and re-victimized by the military adjudication system – a system that often blames the victim and fails to prosecute the perpetrator. Learn more about Protect Our Defenders at www.protectourdefenders.com or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/
Protect Our Defenders partners with Attorney Susan Burke, Burke PLLC to advance lawsuits filed against the DoD and service academies for repeatedly ignoring rape, sexual assault and harassment, failing to prosecute perpetrators and retaliating against the victim.
###
