US Army Revokes Commanders’ Power to Discharge Troops Accused of Serious Crimes
Overview
The US Army, the country’s largest military branch, has announced that military commanders can no longer decide on their own whether soldiers accused of certain serious crimes can leave the service instead of go on trial. One year after ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, and Military Times published an investigation exposing hundreds of soldiers, charged with violent crimes being administratively discharged instead of facing a court martial, the US Army is implementing a new rule that will apply only to cases that fall under the purview of the newly-created Office of Special Trial Counsel as of Saturday, including sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, kidnapping, and murder.
Details
The Change in Rules
As of now, military commanders can no longer have the sole authority to grant a soldier’s request for what is known as a discharge in lieu of court-martial or Chapter 10, in certain cases. Instead, the Office of Special Trial Counsel, a group of military attorneys who specialize in handling cases involving violent crimes, must also endorse the decision. Without the attorneys’ approval, charges against a soldier cannot be dismissed.
The Office of Special Trial Counsel will have the final say concerning whether soldiers accused of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, kidnapping, and murder can be administratively discharged instead of being tried in a court martial. The new rule will only apply to cases like these that fall under the purview of the Office of Special Trial Counsel.
Impact on Military Judiciary System
This change in discharge authority is a step in the right direction, military law experts claim. It is good to see that the US Army has closed the loophole that allowed hundreds of soldiers charged with violent crimes to be administratively discharged instead of facing trial.
If the attorneys want to drop a charge, the commander still has the option to impose a range of other administrative punishments, Army officials said.
Commanders often have little to no legal experience, which is why military law experts argue that commanders should be removed from the judicial process entirely. This shift, experts claim, is the military’s long-standing fight. Christensen said that the US Army’s new rules for certain categories of violent crime charges show that the army is “too wedded to that process.”
Conclusion
The US Army’s new rule comes in response to mounting pressure to change how the military responds to serious allegations of violent crimes, most notably sexual assault, and reduce commanders’ control over that process. But this change still does not give the Office of Special Trial Counsel full authority over separations in lieu of trial, Army officials said. Additional changes to Department of Defense and Army policy are required to remove commanders entirely.
Originally Post From https://www.propublica.org/article/us-army-soldiers-violent-crimes
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Office of Special Trial Counsel – JAGCNet – Army.mil
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