Historic change in military justice
Guillén’s death spurs major reforms in bill
WASHINGTON — Historic reforms to how the military handles reports of crimes including sexual assault and murder are headed to President Joe Biden’s desk to be signed into law, spurred by mistakes at Fort Hood, where Army Spc. Vanessa Guillén was killed last year by a fellow soldier.
The Houston native — whose reports of sexual harassment by a superior officer were ignored by her chain of command — went missing from the base for two months before her body was found last summer. An outside investigation later found a “deficient climate” at the post and concluded Fort Hood leadership “knew or should have known of the high risk of harm to female soldiers.”
The reforms, at least a decade in the making, are the most significant changes ever made to the military justice system. They mark a major victory for the Guillén family, which has spent more than a year calling for changes to address sexual assault in the military, where some 20,000 assaults are estimated to occur each year.
“This is a bittersweet feeling,” Mayra Guillén, the soldier’s sister, tweeted. “The loss of my sister created the biggest military law change in history.”
“All our work paid off,” she said.
For the first time, military commanders will not make decisions on whether to prosecute service members accused of a slew of serious crimes. An independent prosecutor will instead make those calls in cases involving 11 different crimes, including manslaughter, kidnapping, stalking and domestic violence.
“This is a sea change for the military justice system,” said U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The reforms are included in a $768 billion defense authoriza
tion bill that passed the Senate on Wednesday on a 88-11 vote. Biden is expected to sign the bill soon.
Reed — a key negotiator on the defense bill, who had previously opposed removing crimes from the chain of command — said in a speech on the Senate floor that he and other senators “learned a great deal” when they traveled to Fort Hood to speak to soldiers there.
Reed said negotiators “tried to take their lessons and incorporate them into this legislation.” “And I think we have,” he said. Both Texas senators supported the legislation, though U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — who has pushed military justice reforms for nearly a decade — said the changes included in the bill do not go far enough.
Commanders still have significant control of the military justice process, including picking juries, selecting witnesses, granting or denying witness immunity requests and more. Cruz and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, have pushed legislation that would have ended that.
“It is imperative that victims of these heinous crimes can step forward without fear of retaliation, and while this NDAA does not include our entire proposal, the provision that was included is a step in the right direction toward assuring the men and women of our Armed Forces who come forward that justice will be served,” Cruz said in a statement.
The Guillén killing was yet another example of the military’s failure to protect service members who report sexual assault or harassment dating back to at least the 1990s. The movement it inspired reinvigorated the effort in Congress to pass such reforms and eroded much of the remaining political opposition to them.
“Vanessa’s tragic death sparked a movement and reforms that otherwise would have been swept under the rug,” U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia, a Houston Democrat who represents the district where the Guillén family lives, wrote in a Houston Chronicle opinion piece this week.
A Houston native serving at Fort Hood, Guillén was missing for months before her body was discovered. Her family began telling the public that she had been attacked after she reported a supervisor sexually harassed her, even as the Army denied it, and the Guilléns began advocating for changes in Washington, D.C., last year.
The Army in April acknowledged that Guillén was sexually harassed by a superior who suggested they have sex with another person, and that no one in her chain of command took action when she reported it. The Army, however, concluded there was “no evidence” that the sexual harassment was related to her death.
The reforms that passed the Senate would criminalize sexual harassment and establish an independent process for those claims to be investigated outside the chain of command, though decisions on how to handle those cases would still fall on military commanders.
Survivors of sexual assault will now be able to call a help line to report an assault, rather than having to do so in person. And the reforms include provisions giving victims the right to know about administrative actions taken against offenders and requiring the Pentagon to track retaliation against service members who report harassment or assault, among other things.
The bill also includes provisions pushed by Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas after Guillén’s death that would require the Defense Department to review policies for reporting members absent without leave or missing. Military installations would be required to improve security on bases and work more closely with local and federal law enforcement.
“The loss of my sister created the biggest military law change in history.” Mayra Guillén, the soldier’s sister