"‘I expect consequences,” Obama added....If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”"
6/14/13, "Judge: Obama sex assault comments 'unlawful command influence'," Stars and Stripes, Erik Slavin
"Two defendants in military sexual assault cases cannot be punitively
discharged, if found guilty, because of “unlawful command influence”
derived from comments made by President Barack Obama, a judge ruled in a
Hawaii military court this week.
Navy Judge Cmdr. Marcus Fulton ruled during pretrial hearings in two
sexual assault cases — U.S. vs. Johnson and U.S. vs. Fuentes — that
comments made by Obama as commander in chief would unduly influence any
potential sentencing, according to a court documents obtained by Stars
and Stripes.
On Wednesday and Thursday, Fulton approved the pretrial defense
motions, which used as evidence comments that Obama made about sexual
assault at a May 7 news conference.
“The bottom line is: I have no tolerance for this,” Obama said,
according to an NBC News story submitted as evidence by defense
attorneys in the sexual assault cases.
‘I expect consequences,” Obama added. “So I don’t just want more
speeches or awareness programs or training, but ultimately folks look
the other way. If we find out somebody’s engaging in this, they’ve got
to be held accountable — prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court
martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged. Period.”
The judge’s pretrial ruling means that if either defendant is found
guilty, whether by a jury or a military judge, they cannot receive a bad
conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. Sailors found guilty
under the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 120, which covers
several sexual crimes including assault and rape, generally receive
punitive discharges.
“A member of the public would not hear the President’s statement to be a
simple admonition to hold members accountable,” Fulton stated. “A
member of the public would draw the connection between the ‘dishonorable
discharge’ required by the President and a punitive discharge approved
by the convening authority.
“The strain on the system created by asking a convening authority to
disregard [Obama’s] statement in this environment would be too much to
sustain public confidence.”
The ruling sets the stage for defense attorneys to use the same arguments in sexual assault cases throughout the military.
Should other judges accept the same line of reasoning, commands would
have to consider issuing lesser administrative discharges to
servicemembers found guilty of sexual assault. In some cases, this could
allow servicemembers found guilty of sex crimes to retain veterans
benefits, according to Defense Department regulations."...via Free Republic
.
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