BlackAsCoal
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- Nov 18, 2013
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Do you want your kid being judged by civilians who don't know jack**** about military justice judging your daughter, in a scenario where she finds herself forced to disobey an unlawful order on the battlefield? Or, do you want experienced, educated line officers making that call?
We are talking about sexual assault, correct? My answer is absolutely I would want civilian authority adjudicating any and all instances of sexual assault involving my daughter and anybody else's daughter.
I repeat, the chain of command has failed and failed miserably.
On a wider question of civilian authority judging my or anyone else's daughters or sons, in certain caes, I'd have no problem with that either. In fact, those scenerios of a mix of civilian and military authority over both soldiers and civilians already exists ..
Military Versus Civilian Court Authority - Lawyers.com
excerpt
Military and Civilian Court Authority
Military courts have exclusive authority over purely military crimes. Civilian courts have no authority. Some examples of purely military crimes include:
Mutiny
Sedition
Failure to obey an order
Insubordinate conduct
Most crimes violate both civilian and military law. Examples include robbery, assault and murder. The issue becomes whether a military service member will be tried in civilian or military court.
Civilian court authority is usually based on the location of the crime. The crime must have occurred within the boundaries of the state. Military court authority is based on the status of the offender. If he's an active service member, the UCMJ applies no matter where the crime occurs.
If a crime violates both military and state civilian law, it may be tried by a military court, a civilian court or both. Usually the two systems will coordinate to decide where the service member should be prosecuted. A military member can't be tried for the same misconduct by both a military court and another federal court. He can be tried for the same misconduct by both a military court and a state court.