It’s the commanders who authorized the awards who should be punished for several reasons: They gave awards to Naval Officers,(Lawyers), who failed on all counts except one minor charge,they showed their undue command influence with these awards and they showed they really wanted the defendant to go to prison for a long time and had decided his guilt before any trial. (Retired Army Officer)
Courts martial are predominately inquisitorial rather than adversarial like a civilian court. The fact that the court didn’t find in the prosecution’s favor doesn’t mean they failed or lost, and it doesn’t mean they didn’t do outstanding work; it means that the argument presented BY THE GOVERNMENT did not satisfy the standard for conviction.