Military Justice System Problems Go Beyond Sexual Assaults - Law360

Gillibrand's proposed bill — the Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act — is incorporated in the Senate's national defense bill for next year, but is not included in the House's version of the bill. The House's 2022 National Defense Authorization Act only proposes stripping commanders of their prosecutorial authority over sexual assault cases, aligning with a recommendation from a military sexual assault task force.

Both defense bills, however, promise to implement all 82 recommendations from the U.S. Department of Defense's Independent Review Commission on Military Sexual Assault for reforming how the military justice system handles sexual assault cases. The bills also propose additional military justice changes related to victims' rights, jury selection, sentencing, protective orders, retaliation and more, acknowledging that flaws of the U.S. military justice system extend beyond the mishandling of sexual assault cases.

"Up until this point we've passed 250 different reforms that the DOD was OK with, and none of them have made a difference," Gillibrand told Law360. "We still had approximately 20,000 sexual assaults last year and the rate of conviction and the rate of cases going forward to trial has declined."