I believe that this Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act was setup for civilian employees who were working in active combat zones along side of military personnel.
Please tell me why the UCMJ isn't enough? Or is it that this Act has been twisted from its origination in 1999 to now DEMAND that the military become double jeopardy targets?
1. See the following: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2005426/posts
“MEJA applies to two categories of people, those “employed by or accompanying” the armed forces outside the U.S. and those to whom the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) – military law – applied at the time of the offense. Nazario is in that category of alleged offenders.
Assistant US Attorneys Jerry A. Behnke and Charles J. Kovats represented the government in Nazario’s motion hearing. They argued that MEJA is specifically tailored to prosecute former service members who allegedly committed crimes while serving in combat.”
2. I think I said that the UCMJ SHOULD be enough in this case. The UCMJ has long allowed double jeopardy for an ACTIVE member of the military to be tried by a civilian court and subsequently by a military court (even after being acquitted by the civilian court). What I don’t like is the provisions of the MEJA which keeps FORMER soldiers in perpetual jeopardy of being brought up on “murder” charges in a CIVILIAN court for actions performed in combat.