Effective Thursday, commanders will no longer decide if a case involving murder, sexual assault, child sexual assault and intimate partner violence should go to court-martial.
Instead, special trial counsel offices set up by each military branch will now decide if the case should go forward under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The special trial counsels, which are part of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, will now decide if these 13 charges should be prosecuted.
The charges are manslaughter, death or injury of an unborn child, rape and sexual assault, rape and sexual assault of a child, mailing or depositing of obscene matter, sexual misconduct, kidnapping, domestic violence, stalking, retaliation and child pornography.
“This landmark change to the U.S. military justice system will significantly strengthen the independent prosecution of sexual assault and other serious criminal offenses in the Department of Defense,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a Thursday statement. “It is the most important reform to our military justice system since the creation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in 1950. This reform aims to help strengthen accountability and increase all of our service members’ trust in the fairness and integrity of the military justice system. I am grateful to all those whose hard work, determination, and resilience helped us to reach this day.”
The idea behind the special trial counsels, written into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2022, is to take the 13 charges out of the hands of the chain of command. One of the reasons for moving the cases beyond the chain of command was the potential bias when both the alleged and the victim were part of the same unit.
Under the prior system, commanders sent cases forward as long as they had probable cause and potentially out of fear that if they did not move a case forward it would affect their career, a defense official told reporters.
Now, the special trial counsel will determine if there is enough sufficient evidence to get and hold a conviction, including upon appeal, the defense official said.
“This shift should assure sexual assault victims that if they choose to make an unrestricted report, the case will be handled professionally and consistently with the best practices and procedures of civilian prosecution offices,” the defense official said.
Commanders will still have a role, a senior military official told reporters last week. The statute requires their input.
The Navy’s special trial counsel will be led by Rear Adm. Jonathan Stephens. Beyond experience in the Navy JAG, Stephens has also sat on the bench as a military judge.
As of Dec. 27, the Navy’s special trial counsel office reached full operational capacity, a U.S. Navy spokesperson told USNI News. The office will have at least 90 personnel, which will be spread around 10 locations in the U.S. and around the globe.
Headquarters are located at the Washington Navy Yard, the senior military official said. The office is split into two regions: west headquartered in San Diego, Calif., and east in Norfolk, Va. The field offices fall within the two regions.
Under the eastern region are field officers in Norfolk, Washington, D.C., Mayport, Fla., Groton, Conn., Great Lakes, Ill., and Naples, Italy. Under the western region are field offices in San Diego, Bremerton, Wash., Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Yokosuka, Japan.
Of the 90 personnel are 24 lawyers who have been certified for the special trial counsel, the senior military official said. There are another 23 lawyers who will be in support and sit second chair during trials.
Brig. Gen. Kevin Woodard will lead the Marine Corps special trial counsel office. Like the Navy, the Marine Corps office will have four regional offices, with personnel spread among 10 installations. The four regions are pacific, west, east and national capital region.
The Marine Corps has 33 lawyers who are certified as special trial counsel. In total, the Marine Corps office has 64 personnel, with other support positions making up the remainder of the office.
