Posted on 07/13/2013 5:11:49 PM PDT by reaganaut1
WASHINGTON — When President Obama proclaimed that those who commit sexual assault in the military should be “prosecuted, stripped of their positions, court-martialed, fired, dishonorably discharged,” it had an effect he did not intend: muddying legal cases across the country.
In at least a dozen sexual assault cases since the president’s remarks at the White House in May, judges and defense lawyers have said that Mr. Obama’s words as commander in chief amounted to “unlawful command influence,” tainting trials as a result. Military law experts said that those cases were only the beginning and that the president’s remarks were certain to complicate almost all prosecutions for sexual assault.
“Unlawful command influence” refers to actions of commanders that could be interpreted by jurors as an attempt to influence a court-martial, in effect ordering a specific outcome. Mr. Obama, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is considered the most powerful person to wield such influence.
The president’s remarks might have seemed innocuous to civilians, but military law experts say defense lawyers will seize on the president’s call for an automatic dishonorable discharge, the most severe discharge available in a court-martial, arguing that his words will affect their cases.
“His remarks were more specific than I’ve ever heard a commander in chief get,” said Thomas J. Romig, a former judge advocate general of the Army and the dean of the Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kan. “When the commander in chief says they will be dishonorably discharged, that’s a pretty specific message. Every military defense counsel will make a motion about this.”
At Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina last month, a judge dismissed charges of sexual assault against an Army officer, noting the command influence issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
What? - Obama opened his mouth without thinking and said something stupid? - who’da guessed......
There was a case during the Bush administration that GWB refused to comment upon for this very reason -- undue command influence.
Bush knew better.
Obama doesn't know squat.
Maybe Amassador Stevens looked like a friend he used to have.
HF
How many have been raped and have not come forward?
He never should have unlocked his teeth and let this crap statement escape from between them. It would seem that as President he has better things to do with his time than insert his bias into every arena that his lack of wisdom, knowledge and honor drags him into. Every POTUS before him had enough brains to refrain from expressing this kind of thinking in public. Not this one. He has just violated Article 37a of the Uniform Code of Military Justice(UCMJ) which states that undue command influence(UCI) of a judicial proceeding is not to be tolerated. A really good President, not just a really good community organizer, would know that.
Presidents are supposed to have more pressing matters at hand the proscribing of punishments for every active court proceeding. Those issues are decided in law by Congress who writes the UCMJ and not by the whims of a man. We are still a Republic and not a dictatorship yet.
If he had to say something, all he should have said was "those who are found guilty of committing sexual crimes should be punished as the law allows" and nothing more.
exactly, if 9,000 men were raped in one year in the military then how many have not come forward, how many young new recruits have been afraid ?
Allowing homosexuals to serve was the most stupid thing they have done in the military for some time .
None of this has happened to Nadil Hasan yet. He only gunned down dozens of soldiers and civilians at Ft. Hood.
The Islamist in Chief is a POS.
This man is so unbelievably, f***ing stupid, that it boggles the mind. If breathing weren’t an involuntary action, he wouldn’t last.
I would bet that there has to be more than a few of his supporters that, in private, realize that this man is dumber than a box of rocks and that they hitched their cart to the wrong horse.
So did Obama say “should be” or did he say “will be?”
No, Bambi’s big mouth is “prejudicing” military trials, there is nothing “complicated” about it
The evil one is in control of this man, Obama. I pray that Obama is granted repentance (think Nebuchadnezzar) or, barring that, God will frustrate Satan’s work through him.
Bottom line, God gets the glory!l
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