On March 13, 2013, Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner have reported for U.S. News and World Report on an Associated Press story dealing with the heated controversy surrounding the handling of sexual abuse cases by the U.S. military. In a harsh attack on the military's efforts to curb sexual assault, members of a Senate panel sharply criticized Defense Department officials on Wednesday for making too little progress in fighting sexual crimes and failing to improve a military justice system that victims have described as slow and uncaring.
During a two-part hearing, the Senate panel listened to tense testimony from several victims, who said military justice is broken and pushed for Congress to take action to curtail the rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment which they have said are pervasive in all the service branches. Pentagon officials were clearly upset and angry about this and said, "Sexual assault in the military is not only an abhorrent crime that does enormous harm to the victim, but it is also a virulent attack on the discipline and good order on which military cohesion depends."
David Lerman and Larry Liebert have reported for Bloomberg, Senator Would Bar Voiding Military Sex-Assault Verdicts. A senator has said that she’ll offer legislation which would strip U.S. military commanders of the power to overturn court-martial convictions in sexual-assault cases. Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat, said today in a statement, “Giving military commanders with no legal experience the ability to completely nullify a jury’s verdict without even requiring justification is against everything that we believe about justice in this country.”
