should there be changes so that, for example, air force generals cannot wade in and personally decide to overturn jury verdicts in court-martials to reinstate people convicted of sexual assault? should there be changes to policies like that? absolutely. there need to be some changes. i don t think we need to wholesale change the uniform coded military justice. but these cases turn on who do you believe? these are about the triers of fact. and what s really insulting about the cases overturned, these generals have picked the juries. so in the cases, the people who listen to the witnesses and decided who was telling the truth were the hand-picked jurors of the generals and then even in spite of that, the generals went ahead and said, you know, i wasn t in the courtroom and i didn t hear the testimony and i didn t have the advantage as you had in listening to the testimony and deciding the credibility of the witnesses, i m going to super impose my judgment. so i do not believe a general
board. but it s even worse in the military, rachel, because these victims, many times the people who have assaulted them, they have to salute every day. or they have to work shoulder to shoulder with them in the unit. not only are they having to expose something very private and ugly, they re also jeopardizing their career. because they see this as something that could hold them back in terms of their chances for advancement in a military that many of them love deeply. should there be structural changes to address that? should sexual assault and related crimes be treated outside the chain of command in the terms of the way they are adjudicated? should there be changes so that, for example, air force generals cannot wade in and personally decide to overturn jury verdicts in court-martials to reinstate people convicted of sexual assault? should there be changes to policies like that? absolutely. there need to be some changes. i don t think we need to wholesale change the uniform code
should there be structural changes to address that? should sexual assault and related crimes be treated outside the chain of command in the terms of the way they are adjudicated? should there be changes so that, for example, air force generals cannot wade in and personally decide to overturn jury verdicts in court-martials to reinstate people convicted of sexual assault? should there be changes to policies like that? absolutely. there need to be some changes. i don t think we need to wholesale change the uniform coded military justice. but these cases turn on who do you believe? these are about the triers of fact. and what s really insulting about the cases overturned, these generals have picked the juries. so in the cases, the people who listen to the witnesses and decided who was telling the truth were the hand-picked jurors of the generals and then even in spite of that, the generals went ahead and said, you know, i wasn t in the courtroom and i didn t hear the testimony and i d