A call to fire general in sexual-assault dismissal

An advocate for sexual assault victims is urging the Air Force to fire a general involved with a case that has enraged members of Congress who are pushing for the military to finally crack down on the sexual violence that critics say has become an epidemic.
Protect Our Defenders President Nancy Parrish argued Tuesday in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel that Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, commander of the 3rd Air Force, used “failed and biased reasoning and unreliable information” in his decision to dismiss the sexual-assault conviction of Lt. Col. James Wilkerson.
Continue Reading

Some lawmakers argued that Franklin’s decision showed an old-boys’ club at work. | AP Photo

By JUANA SUMMERS | 4/24/13 5:11 AM EDT

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/air-force-general-sexual-assault-dismissal-90521.html#ixzz2RY452mmo

Parrish argued that Franklin’s decision to overturn the findings of a court-martial and free Wilkerson “clearly conflicts with his responsibility to further good order and discipline within the service.”

The case drew a hail of criticism from members of Congress, who argued Franklin’s decision showed an old-boys’ club at work protecting its own. Hagel responded with a proposal that Congress change the Uniform Code of Military Justice to weaken commanders’ abilities to void court-martial verdicts, which victims’ advocates welcomed as a first step toward what they say is needed reform.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley defended Franklin, telling reporters in a breakfast meeting Tuesday that Franklin has a track record of acting correctly and within the bounds of the law. Franklin, Donley said, uses his power as “convening authority” in courts-martial based on the merits of each case. Although Franklin has altered the results in two of the five sexual-assault cases he’s dealt with, he has let convictions stand in three of them, Donley said.
Franklin himself has also dismissed charges that he does not take sexual assault seriously.
“Accusations by some that my decision was the result of either an apparent lack of understanding of sexual assault on my part, or that I do not take the crime of sexual assault seriously are complete and utter nonsense,” Franklin said in a six-page letter to Donley last month. “I unequivocally view sexual assault as a highly egregious crime. I take every allegation of sexual assault very seriously.”