PRESS RELEASE: Air Force Pilot Convicted of Sexual Assault Forced to Retire; Protect Our Defenders Calls for Lt Gen Franklin to be Removed
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2013 Contact: Brian Purchia, (202) 253-(202) 253-4330, brian@protectourdefenders.com
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AIR FORCE PILOT CONVICTED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT FORCED TO RETIRE; PROTECT OUR DEFENDERS CALLS FOR LT GEN FRANKLIN TO BE REMOVED
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the United States Air Force announced that Lt Col James Wilkerson, who was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a civilian contractor at Aviano Air Base in Italy, will be forced to retire on January 1. The former fighter pilot is being demoted after the Acting Air Force Secretary, “concluded that Wilkerson did not serve satisfactorily in the grade of lieutenant colonel.” After a lengthy trial, Wilkerson was dismissed from the Air Force and sentenced to one year in jail. However, Lt Gen Craig Franklin, the convening authority overturned the conviction and freed his fellow pilot, reinstating him back into the Air Force against the recommendation of his own legal counsel. Afterwards, Franklin released a letter explaining his reasoning, which demonstrated an ignorance of the facts and a bias towards Wilkerson, who he described as a “doting father and husband.” Wilkerson will now be allowed to retire with some benefits, while Franklin and those that supported his decision remain in the military. For months, Protect Our Defenders has called for the removal of Wilkerson and Franklin from the military.
“We hope today’s news brings some comfort to the victim and her family, who have been fighting for justice. There should also be consequences for Lt Gen Franklin and General Breedlove who supported Franklin’s baseless decision to overturn Wilkerson’s conviction. Franklin failed to promote ‘good order and discipline’ and allowed his bias and conflict of interest to undermine justice,” said Nancy Parrish President of Protect Our Defenders. “This case is a perfect example of why the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in our military is pervasive and ongoing. The Air Force Chief of Staff, General Mark Welsh has yet to hold Franklin accountable. If he is serious about addressing this crisis he needs to respond to Franklin’s biased and unfounded overturning of Wilkerson’s conviction.”
Following Lt Gen Franklin’s decision, Protect Our Defenders brought the Aviano victim to meet with elected officials ahead of a March Senate hearing on the ongoing epidemic and her case. The advocacy group also held a protest outside Davis-Monthan Air Force Base calling for the removal of the two officers, when Wilkerson was re-assigned to the victim’s family’s hometown.
Meanwhile, calls quickly grew to remove the commander’s authority to overturn verdicts, which the Defense Department recently agreed to adopt. However, commanders still have authority over these cases, including the ability to reduce sentences at their discretion – a remaining danger to justice and potentially as damaging as overturning a conviction.
Members of Congress, from both parties condemned Franklin’s action. “Franklin clearly substituted his own independent judgment for that of the convened fact-finding panel,” said Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
“This [Franklin’s explanation] letter, is filled with selective reasoning and assumptions from someone with no legal training, and it’s appalling that the reasoning spelled out in the letter served as the basis to overturn a jury verdict in this case,” said Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO).
Six months ago, Wilkerson’s victim asked the Air Force to provide documents surrounding the trial and post-trial activities. The military failed to comply with multiple legal deadlines. It was only after Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) stepped in and demanded a response that the documents were finally released. The recently released emails send a chilling reminder to victims of sexual assault in our military, who are thinking about coming forward, that military brass will go to extreme lengths to protect the status quo.
In the emails, pleas from the Commander of the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano, Brig Gen Scott Zobrist, who was Wilkerson’s immediate commander, urging Lt Gen Franklin to not overturn Wilkerson’s aggravated sexual assault conviction, were ignored.
“That would be absolutely devastating in so many ways that I cannot even begin to consider it,” Zobrist wrote in a Feb. 19, 2013 email. “Having Wilkerson back on active duty at Aviano, even for one day, would… have a huge negative impact on morale, send a very negative message about how seriously we take sexual assault in the AF, and potentially call into question the effectiveness of our UCMJ system in general.”
Lt Gen Franklin dismissed the warnings and instead got support from his chain of command to dismiss the jury’s findings and toss out the conviction. In email exchanges, the Air Force Commander in Europe, Gen Philip Breedlove stated that he agreed with Franklin regarding overturning the conviction.
General Breedlove wrote, “He [Franklin] and I have discussed in depth the meaning and the possible blow back. I stand behind his decision.” [Click here for more excerpts from the FOIA release.] Furthermore, on March 15, Breedlove defended Franklin’s actions and criticized the prosecution and the court in front of 500 majors, rising Commanders.
With Breedlove’s blessing, Lt Gen Franklin set aside justice and started a full court press to get Wilkerson promoted and flying again.
“I intend to get him back to a flying assignment ASAP (away from Aviano.) Please make sure Col Wilkerson knows he can contact me or his OG…about the way ahead for his next assignment,” wrote Franklin. “Getting him reunited with is family is the priority for the next few days. Certainly after he and [his wife] have had a chance to discuss it, we will see what he wants to do next.”
This mockery of justice created an international uproar and calls for fundamental reforms to the broken military justice system. Earlier this year, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA) to move the decision to prosecute and adjudicate sexual assault cases from an often-biased chain of command — a step toward creating an independent and impartial military justice system. This common sense reform has widespread bipartisan backing, with 46 senators publicly supporting the bill, including Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), and Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).
On the House side, Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) has introduced the Sexual Assault Training Oversight and Prevention Act (STOP Act). This bill removes the authority for handling these cases from the chain of command. The legislation currently has 148 co-sponsors. Thus far the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee has failed to allow the bill to come before the committee for a vote.
Pentagon officials have furiously objected to the creation of an independent and impartial justice system, saying it will negatively impact “good order and discipline,” even though there is no evidence of this from our many allies with similar systems. Last month, Paul Cronan, director-general of the Australian Defence Force Legal Service who was asked to testify at a hearing on the epidemic said they faced same set of arguments from military leaders.
“It’s a little bit like when we opened up [to] gays in military in the late ’80s,” Cronan said. “There was a lot of concern at that time that there’d be issues. But not surprisingly, there haven’t been any.”
According to the Pentagon’s 2012 SAPRO report, 25% of victims indicated the offender is someone in their chain of command. Fifty percent of female victims stated they did not report the crime because they believed nothing would be done. Of those few who did report – 60% stated they were retaliated against.
This past spring, Wilkerson was reassigned, with his rank of Lt Colo, to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, where many of Wilkerson’s victim’s family reside. Meanwhile. Franklin remains in the Air Force.
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Air Force Times: Lt. col. granted clemency in sex assault case to retire as major http://www.airforcetimes.com/
Protect Our Defenders Point by Point Rebuttal of Gen Franklin’s 18 Reasons for Overturning Col Wilkerson’s Sexual Assault Conviction
Florida Times-Union: Delores Barr Weaver backs national effort to support victims of military sexual assault
Politico: Military sex assault bill stalled by Syria
http://www.politico.com/story/
San Antonio Express-News: Hagel misses important opportunity
New York Times: Revisiting the Military’s Tailhook Scandal
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/
McClatchy News: Senators differ on role for military brass in sexual assault cases
http://www.miamiherald.com/
Stars & Stripes: Emails show general warned against reversing Wilkerson verdict
http://www.stripes.com/news/
Associated Press: Air Force Officer Transfer Draws Protest
http://bigstory.ap.org/
About Protect Our Defenders: Protect Our Defenders is a human rights organization. We seek to honor, support and give voice to the brave women and men in uniform who have been sexually assaulted while serving their country, and re-victimized by the military adjudication system – a system that often blames the victim and fails to prosecute the perpetrator. Learn more about Protect Our Defenders at www.protectourdefenders.com or on Facebook at http://facebook.com/
Protect Our Defenders partners with Attorney Susan Burke, Burke PLLC to advance lawsuits filed against the DoD and service academies for repeatedly ignoring rape, sexual assault and harassment, failing to prosecute perpetrators and retaliating against the victim.
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