Posted on 03/09/2014 4:02:45 AM PDT by ClaytonP
The promotion of an astronaut considered a role model for women in the military has been scrapped in a career-ending move over her action in overruling a conviction in a sexual assault case.
Air Force officials would not confirm that President Obama had withdrawn the nomination of Lt. Gen. Susan Helms to be vice commander of the Air Force’ Space Command, but the officials said that “she has put in for retirement.”
The nomination of Helms, who flew on five space shuttle missions and jointly holds the record for the longest space walk, had been put on “permanent hold” by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., who cited Helms’ action as commander of the 14th Air Force in overturning the sex assault conviction of a captain at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in February 2012.
In a statement to the Congressional Record in June, McCaskill said that “With her action, Lt. Gen. Helms sent a damaging message to survivors of sexual assault who are seeking justice in the military justice system.”
McCaskill charged that Helms had sent the message to survivors that “they can experience a momentary sense of justice in knowing that they were believed when their attacker is convicted and sentenced, only to have that justice ripped away with the stroke of a pen by an individual who was never in the courtroom for the trial and who never heard the testimony.”
The case in question involved Capt. Matthew Herrera, who was acquitted of assaulting a female technical sergeant but convicted of assaulting a female first lieutenant. There was no physical evidence in either case.
In a statement to the Air Force Times in March, Lt. Col. Kathleen Cook, a spokeswoman for the Space Command, said that Helms had reviewed the Herrera case for five weeks and “concluded that she could not be satisfied (that) the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt burden of proof had been met and therefore declined to approve the conviction.”
Helms’ defenders have also pointed out that she issued non-judicial punishment to Herrera under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice that ultimately led to Herrera’s resignation from the Air Force.
The Helms nomination has become a flash point in the ongoing debate in Congress on whether sexual assault cases in the military should be taken out of the chain of command.
A vote could come as early as next week on legislation proposed by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that would strip commanders of their current authority to refer cases to courts-martial and overrule verdicts. Under Gillibrand’s proposal, the authority would go to independent lawyers from the Judge Advocate General’s corps.
Helms, 55, spent a total of 211 days in space, including five months aboard the International Space Station. While on the Space Stationin 2001, she and astronaut Jim Voss conducted the longest space walk – eight hours and 56 minutes.
It’s so tiresome to read about a “survivor of a sexual assault.” Unless the woman in question was physically assaulted by an attacker who intended to kill her, she was not a “survivor”; a “victim,” yes, most definitely, but not a “survivor.” I’m assuming that being raped does not carry with it the danger of death.
Words have meaning. This term is definitely misused.
I didn’t even realize we still had a manned space program.
This isn't "our" (civil) justice system, it was tried under the military justice system...a way different ball of wax...
Did the thought occur to you that his charges were overturned because there was no evidence ?
Even the military justice system operates under the concept of innocent until proven guilty...
Officers lie all the time. Pretending they don’t is naive at best.
Stalin as role model. Check.
Political purge. Check.
Military personnel treated as servants. Check.
Military effectiveness destroyed. Second Nobel Peace?
...Prize
The Convening Authority may examine the record of trial, to including findings of facts and overturn convictions based upon that review. It is a protection built into the military justice system. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I suspect that something just didn’t smell quite right.
Contrast this with the civilian justice system where prosecutors and judges come from and are part of the political system. They produce political results and if they don’t they are weeded out or relegated to night traffic court. Much of the abuse of our justice system is political abuse.
This is where the military justice system is headed and it will destroy the military.
Exactly right.
Almost certainly with. Under McCaskill’s plan, preferral of charges would go to a new directorate within Air Force Legal Ops Agency (my unit), and we all think it’s a horrible, misguided idea.
Believe me, as a former Missourian, McCaskill is no genius.
How horribly, yet deliciously, ironic that an eminently qualified woman would have her 4th star denied because she “failed the sisterhood” by doing what her conscience required.
Oh no, not General Helms! Now I know for certain that the purge is deliberate.
You are dead wrong on that one.
It's the UCMJ and it works. Commanders are legally, professionally, ethically, financially and morally responsible for EVERYTHING that happens under their command. They need to be empowered to exercise that responsibility. If you don't like it, don't join the military.
As long as commanders (and others) are professional, ethical, and moral, then you both are correct. However, I can point you both to our attorney General as a shining example of how this is not always the case. It isn't any different in the military. And if you want to look at the jury side, one only has to look at the OJ Simpson trial as a example of how no matter how much evidence one presents, juries will not convict.
A person could say these are anomalies in life. I actually think what we're witnessing is a breakdown in our justice system where laws are applied randomly and discriminatively.
Commanders are executives. Although it’s technically not the same thing, in a bigger sense, it’s really no different than the pardon power given a governor or president. If you accept that a commander unilaterally has the authority to punish a service member (judicially or non-judicially) you have to vest that commander, or those further up the chain of command with the authority to reconsider or undo the punishment.
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