I know, Chaplain; but I still wish he could. :^)
I wonder if it’s possible for a Congressional Committee to hold hearings on this, and possibly add revision to the UCMJ to allow for recovery of a part of any expended funds of those defending themselves of such egregious charges. While I have no doubt of the funding intent, I think it’s been shown in what little has been released that there is a latitude given by the court to defense expenditures. And while we all would agree that both the prosecuting and defending JAGs are working to the best of their abilities, we all know from past experience that politics and self-preservation of career does play a role.
Doubt it will happen, but I would like to see an accounting of the costs involved for all of these cases for both prosecution and defense separately.
This really needs to be above-board. There's no reason the government prosecution should be able to outspend the GOVERNMENT defense by a huge amount. My experience of years on active duty was that defendants had to go outside the military for aggressive, adequately funded defense counsel...AND that funding came from the defendants hocking everything they owned just to be on par with adequacy, much less equivalence.
I was a chaplain and not a jag, so my perception could certainly be wrong, but it doesn't strike me that way.