A kangaroo
court is a proceeding that denies proper procedure in the name of expediency.
It is a fraudulent or unjust trial where the decision has essentially been made
in advance, usually for the purpose of providing a conviction. It is also an
elaborately scripted event intended to appear fair while having the outcome
predetermined from the start. It is a show trial with a reasonable outcome.
As in the case
of Webster Smith, it is conducted largely in the open. An accounting of private
conduct is done in public. The proceedings appear to be fair, and the sentence
is apparently legitimate. The convening authority goes out of its way to be
open and fair, but it is nothing more than a show trial. It results in a
judicial lynching; such as, Stalin's kangaroo trials of his
"enemies", and the Romanian military court which sentenced Nicolae
Ceausescu to death.
Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court William o. Douglas
once wrote, "[W]here police take matters in their own hands, seize
victims, beat and pound them until they confess, there cannot be the slightest
doubt that the police have deprived the victim of a right under the
Constitution. It is the right of the
accused to be tried by a legally constituted court, not by a kangaroo court" (Williams v. United States,
341 U.S. 97, 71 S. Ct. 576, 95 L. Ed. 774 [1951]).
After his
kangaroo court-martial, former Cadet Webster Smith was taken to the U.S. Navy
brig at the Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut on 28 June 2006.
He should have
been granted an 8 day deferment of the sentence. This is normally a routine
thing. However, this was not a routine case, by any means. Even the vilest
military convicted offender is given some time alone with his family to say
good-bye. Webster Smith was not. Webster waited in a secure room under double
security guards while his written Request for Deferment was presented to
Admiral James Van Sice. The Admiral sat in his ivory tower with Commander Sean
Gill, his military advisor, and drank coffee. Then he summarily denied the
routine request without any justification whatsoever. This has never been done
before. Admiral Van Sice received bad advice from his legal advisor.
As soon as Van Sice's signature was on the denial order, two flat-footed agents
from the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) ordered Cadet Smith's parents
to vacate the premises. Mild mannered Webster Smith was handcuffed and paraded
up and down the corridor like Jesus being paraded between Caiaphas and Pontius
Pilate for all the rabble to gawk and marvel. Poor Webster Smith was made a
spectacle. Thoroughly humbled and suitably constrained, he was offered for
inspection to KN and SR, the two principal witnesses against him. Then, still
in handcuffs, he was paraded in front of the news media for a photo opportunity.
This was cruel and inhuman punishment. This was truly a new low even for the
likes of James Van Sice. This single act more so than preferring groundless
charges shows clearly the character of Admiral James Van Sice. His actions
indicated that he was not only a racist, and a bigot, but he was also just
plain mean spirited.
Originally he
was supposed to be transferred on 10 July to a Federal prison for military
officers in South Carolina. It did not happen. Admiral Van Sice delayed signing
off on the Report of the Court-martial. The delay was not explained. Then plans
were to transfer him to the South Carolina prison on 19 July.
Commandant
Instruction M5350.4B, The Civil Rights Manual, required the Academy Civil
Rights Officer to attempt to resolve informally any civil rights complaint
within 5 days of receiving it. Jo Ann Miller, the Academy Civil Rights Officer,
planned to retire on 28 July.
To expect this travesty of justice to have a positive effect upon the Coast
Guard Academy is tantamount to asking for good fruit to come from a poisonous
tree. It will not happen. It will not result in gender equality. It will not
make female cadets take responsibility for their own actions. It will not
result in more female staff officers at the Academy. Having a female Commandant
of Cadets is nice but it is little more than window dressing. It will not turn
female coeds at a secular college into female cadets or future Coast Guard
officers. It will not cause the Coast Guard to change its policy on releasing
the statistics they keep on the number of reported sexual assaults on base.
All of the
other military academies have released their statistics on sexual assaults
reported. The public has access to those statistics. The Coast Guard has not
released the number of assaults reported, or how they were disposed of. There
have been many, up to and during the time Webster Smith was in pre-trial
confinement. All of the others have been quietly disposed of. From 1993 until
the spring semester of 2005, the Coast Guard had confirmed only 10 reported
incidents of sexual misconduct, according to information provided by the Coast
Guard Academy to the Navy Times. Of those, six incidents resulted in dismissal
of the accused and two ended in resignation. In the remaining two cases, there
was insufficient evidence to pursue charges. The Coast Guard Academy had 982
students, nearly 30 percent of whom were women at that time.
Only Webster Smith has been persecuted and then prosecuted to the fullest
extent possible under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So far, we have
only heard of the most exceptional cases that get reported in the media. The
Coast Guard guards its sexual assault statics like the nuclear missile launch
codes. It is arguable whether they would release the statistics pursuant to a
Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA). Of course, they would be subject to
a subpoena as part of discovery in a discrimination law suit. Or the NAACP
Legal Defense, Inc Fund or the Department of Justice could just ask for them.
Now that U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., has proposed a federal
review of the Coast Guard Academy's sexual assault policies and the Government
Accounting Office (GAO) is taking closer cognizance of the Coast Guard Academy,
I am sure that they will keep a close eye on the statistics.
Labels: Cadet Webster Smith.
1 Comments:
Sean Gill is now a member of the Coast Guard Court of Criminal Appeals. The judges may be commissioned officers or civilians. The Court is currently constituted as follows:
Chief Judge Lane I. McClelland
Judge Patrick J. McGuire
Judge John F. Havranek
Judge Kathleen A. Duignan
Judge Andrew J. Norris
Judge Sean P. Gill
Judge John S. Luce
Judge Peter J. Clemens.
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