Protect Our Defenders Policy Director, Senator Gillibrand’s Press Conference Announcing Gillibrand Bill PR 051613, May 15, 2013
My name is Miranda Petersen and I am here representing Protect Our Defenders, an organization dedicated to eradicating the plague of sexual assault in the US Military, and ensuring adequate care and support for survivors of military sexual assault.
Currently, the United States Military has a system of justice which gives commanders unfettered power to decide when and if to administer justice in sexual assault cases. Commanders must no longer be permitted to interfere with victim reporting and judicial proceedings. Fifty-percent of victims report the perpetrator is of higher rank and 23% of victims’ report the perpetrator is in their chain of command.
In recent high profile cases, we have seen commanders act unilaterally to overturn jury convictions in sexual assault cases. This is a system fraught with personal bias, conflicts of interest, abuse of authority, and a low regard for victims who report sexual assault.
As Americans, we know what a justice system is supposed to look like—and we can recognize when a decision is made that is fundamentally unfair. When one commander with no legal training and often a personal connection to the perpetrator is allowed to ignore the findings of a jury and declare a convicted perpetrator as innocent, lessen his sentence, or shut down a case before it ever gets to trial, we know there is something wrong with the system.
Unfortunately, victims of sexual assault are forced to navigate such a system often alone, without legal representation and facing retaliation by their command in their effort to seek justice and hold their assailant accountable. Therefore most victims do not have faith in the military justice system. Most of them—rightly—are too afraid to report. They know it will probably fail to result in the punishment of their attacker and they will likely suffer retaliation.
When this act becomes law commanders like Lt. General Craig Franklin and General Susan Helms, who both ignored the findings of their hand picked jury and went against their legal advisers opinions, will no longer be able to erase sexual assault convictions with the swipe of their pen.
The reforms put forth in this bill are crucial to protecting victims from bias and intimidation, and will give them a fighting chance to achieve justice and prevent further attacks. The authority to decide which cases go to trial, and to determine the ultimate outcome of a court-martial, must be taken out of the chain of command.
Protect Our Defenders applauds Senator Gillibrand, Senator Boxer and all the other elected officials hear today for their leadership on this issue. Thank you.