I am Vanessa Guillén Act Praised as Calls for Removing COs from Sexual Assault Prosecutions Mount
Lt. Gen. Pat White greets Congresswoman Jackie Speier, the representative to California s 14th District, at the start of congressional delegation visit at Fort Hood, Texas, May 5, 2021. (U.S. Army/Sgt. Evan Ruchotzke)
25 May 2021 Medill News Service | By Karli Goldenberg
Less than a month after the anniversary of 20-year-old Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén s disappearance, Reps. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., reintroduced the I Am Vanessa Guillén Act on May 13, reigniting calls to take prosecution authority away from military commanders.
The legislation proposes sweeping changes to the military s policies surrounding missing service members and reports of sexual harrassment and sexual assault. The act would make sexual harassment a crime under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and
Turner endorses landmark legislation to combat military sexual assault
Gillibrand
Turner
WASHINGTON, D.C. Congressman Mike Turner (R-OH) announced Friday that he will endorse landmark bipartisan legislation to reform the military justice system in sexual assault cases. The legislation would remove the decision to prosecute sexual assault from the military chain of command and place it in the hands of a independent senior military prosecutor.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) first introduced the bill in the Senate. Turner will serve as the original House Republican cosponsor of the bill.
“Congressman Turner is a longtime leader in the fight to combat sexual assault in the military and has a proven record of enacting legislation to deliver justice for survivors,” Gillibrand said in a statement from Turner’s office. “This is a truly bipartisan bill and it’s time to get this done.”
On Thursday, she called the movement in the Senate a defining moment. For decades, sexual assault in our military has been an uncontrolled epidemic hurting readiness, recruitment and morale, Gillibrand said. This commonsense legislation will ensure that the justice system works for all service members and enact measures to help prevent sexual assault across our armed forces.
Grassley said the momentum vindicates years of work to secure justice for military survivors. It s utterly unacceptable that so many of those who serve our country in uniform have dealt with a system that s broken, he said.
The senators announcement comes as more leaders inside the Pentagon have said they are receptive to the move following the recommendations of an independent review panel on the issue.
Army soldiers. (Getty Images)
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Republican Sen. Joni Ernst say they have enough votes in the chamber to pass a bill that would reform how the U.S. military handles cases of sexual assault and other crimes.
The legislation, among other things, would take sexual assault cases out of the chain of command and instead hand them to independent military prosecutors.
When a case of sexual assault is reported, by law it is turned over to the investigative authorities within each military branch.
“Once that investigation is complete, they give it to a commander of the subject of the investigation the suspect,” says Col. Don Christensen, the former chief prosecutor for the U.S. Air Force and the president of Protect Our Defenders, a nonprofit aimed at ending sexual assault in the military.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., says there are now enough votes in the Senate to pass legislation to move cases of sexual assault in the military out of the chain of command. Above, Gillibrand talks about the bill outside the U.S. Capitol last week.
In a breakthrough for an 8-year-long effort, two senators behind legislation to revamp the way the military handles sexual assault cases and other serious crimes say the bill has the bipartisan votes to gain passage.
New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst said on Wednesday that the legislation would, for the first time, move cases out of the chain of command to trained military prosecutors. Such cases would remain under military oversight but would be handled by criminal justice attorneys with relevant expertise rather than commanders who often lack legal training.