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Military sexual assault trials complicated by POTUS's admonishment
Submitted by Mastodon on Sun, 2013-07-14 03:34
Article here. Excerpt:
'WASHINGTON — When President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country.
In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to “unlawful command influence,” tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault.'
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Presumed guilty
First, yes, he should've said nothing like what he did. After over 4 years as C-in-C and being a Con'l lawyer, you'd think he'd've known better. But what's more troubling is that in one breath he affirmed the now well-known pitfall faced by male college students: presumed guilt. He said sexual assault suspects (though he never used that word, "suspects") should be "prosecuted, stripped of their positions ...", and so on. Note he starts w/ the word "prosecuted". Someone being prosecuted is not necessarily guilty of the crime for which they're being prosecuted. But then w/out any mention of the idea they may be found not guilty, he moves on to prescribing the punishments. No mention of receiving a fair trial at all or that based on its outcome, then a mention of punishments he'd like to see assigned. (In his list he does mention "court-martialed", which is a military trial; just no sense of considering anything but a guilty outcome seems reflected in what he says.)
Funny though, in the list he stated, it never mentions jail time. You'd think instead of merely discharging the guilty party, there'd be jail time. Just don't get that.