A Profound Case Study in Military Justice: Charges dismissed following NJP turn-down + contested Art. 32
N/AOUTCOME: Charges dismissed; service member retained
A brave client, charged with an Art. 120 sexual assault, proclaimed their innocence, refused to accept NJP, and demanded trial by court-martial. The client did so after thorough counseling that they wo ... uld likely face a general court-martial, potentially years in confinement, and a punitive discharge. We mounted a fully contested Art. 32 preliminary hearing, to include fact witnesses, and followed it up with an exculpatory polygraph. The convening authority ultimately dismissed all charges. This case should never have seen NJP let alone a charge sheet, not least because DNA evidence excluded my client and implicated someone else. This case perhaps illucidates some concerns about contemporary trends in military justice reform. In the end, however, multiple people in the chain took a hard look at the case before making the right call. In de-brief conversations following, it was clear that our contested Art. 32 hearing contributed to that outcome in no small part. This outcome frankly caused some choking-up on the Defense. Not only did an undeterred E3 take the courageous step of demanding a court-martial, and not only did putting on a contested hearing help get the charges dismissed, but levelheaded decision makers made the potentially unpopular but right, honorable call. That is a beautiful result for this small, sacred field of law entrusted with such a special population, and it's a beautiful result for the integrity of the military justice system.
