Letter to President Barack Obama - Reform Military Justice System to Protect Sexual Assault Victims

Letter

U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Representative Jackie Speier (D-CA) today wrote to President Obama urging him to take immediate steps to reform the military justice system by ending the abusive treatment of sexual assault victims during Article 32 proceedings.

A story on the front page of the New York Times recently detailed the case of a female midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy who was subjected to roughly 30 hours of intimidating and invasive questioning by attorneys for her alleged assailants during an Article 32 hearing, which will help determine whether her case will go to a court-martial.

"We were shocked and alarmed to learn that Article 32 allows sexual assault victims to be questioned in a manner that is intimidating and degrading, and that we believe has had a major chilling effect on sexual assault reporting," the lawmakers wrote. "According to legal experts, no civilian court in our nation would allow the questioning that was allowed in the Article 32 proceeding in the Naval Academy case."

In civilian courts, rape shield laws protect victims from aggressive and invasive lines of questioning that could discourage men and women from coming forward to report crimes, but no such protections exist for sexual assault victims during Article 32 proceedings.

In the letter to President Obama, Boxer, Blumenthal and Speier wrote, "Article 32 should be reformed now. Military experts have noted that in an Article 32 proceeding, impugning the character of the victim in sexual assault cases has become a standard defense strategy. This is wrong and it demands immediate remedies -- no victim should have to endure such an injustice."

According to the Department of Defense, an estimated 26,000 cases of sexual assault occurred in the military last year, but only 3,374 of them were reported.

In May, Senators Boxer and Blumenthal joined Senators Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Susan Collins (R-ME) to introduce the Military Justice Improvement Act, which would help address this epidemic by putting decisions about whether to prosecute serious crimes like sexual assault in the hands of trained, independent military prosecutors, to encourage more victims to come forward to report sexual assaults. Representative Speier has also introduced legislation in the House to remove decisions about whether to prosecute sexual assault from the chain of command.

The full text of the letter follows:

September 25, 2013
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

We write to bring your attention to the attached article that appeared on the front page of Saturday's New York Times. The article details the unabashed abuse of a victim of military sexual assault by lawyers for three former United States Naval Academy football players. The attorneys for the accused were able to proceed with an outrageous line of questioning of the victim for roughly 30 hours as a result of the rules that govern Article 32 proceedings of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (10 U.S.C. § 832).

We were shocked and alarmed to learn that Article 32 allows sexual assault victims to be questioned in a manner that is intimidating and degrading, and that we believe has had a major chilling effect on sexual assault reporting. According to legal experts, no civilian court in our nation would allow the questioning that was allowed in the Article 32 proceeding in the Naval Academy case.

The Joint Service Committee on Military Justice is considering changes to the military justice system, but this abuse should not be allowed to stand for another day. Article 32 should be reformed now. Military experts have noted that in an Article 32 proceeding, impugning the character of the victim in sexual assault cases has become a standard defense strategy. This is wrong and it demands immediate remedies -- no victim should have to endure such an injustice.

As such, we respectfully request that your Administration take immediate steps to modify Article 32 proceedings in the Manual for Courts-Martial in a way that would mirror the rules that govern preliminary hearings in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. We believe such reforms would protect the rights of both the accused and the accuser.

We are working with our colleagues in Congress to fundamentally change how the military handles sexual assault cases, but our work will not be complete if the Article 32 process allows victims who come bravely forward and report sexual abuse to be harassed and intimated in a pre-trial setting.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

Richard Blumenthal
United States Senator

Jackie Speier
Member of Congress

cc: The Honorable Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense

Source