Military Justice system is fair and offers safeguards, US TRANSCOM counsel tells law students
"There is a lot of misinformation and disinformation about military justice," he told 100 military and civilian law students at an Air Force Outreach Program. "The persistent sound byte is this: that military justice is to justice what military music is to music. It just isn't true."
Swanson, who also serves as staff judge advocate for the Air Mobility Command, said the common view of military justice has no basis in fact.
"Compared to the federal justice system, the military stacks up well," Swanson said at the symposium held at Southwest Illinois College. "The system is different than the civilian one because discipline-as George Washington said-is the soul of an army. People who have access to weapons and destruction need discipline."
Swanson noted that the American military justice system is unique in its ability to ensure discipline in a manner consistent with American core values of due process and individual rights.
He said that the military has established a justice system that is quick and can be taken anywhere in the world where the military is operating. It has unique features because the military is unique, he stated.
"If you work for a civilian company and don't bother to show up for work for a week, you might be fired, but you won't end up in jail," he said. "In the military, not showing up for work is far more serious. The lives of many people might depend on you being at work. There is no counterpart to the charge of 'absent without leave'-awol-in the civilian world."
He said the Uniform Code of Military Justice and the U.S. Constitution form the basis of military justice.
"Take the example of the well-known Miranda warning against self-incrimination in the federal system. Once a person is taken into custody, he must be advised of his right to remain silent," Swanson pointed out. "In the military we have the same thing. It is called Article 31 and in fact we had it 15 years before Miranda."
He said that a major difference between the two systems involves the selection of juries. In the federal system, a jury is randomly chosen from a pool of peers. In the military system, the jury is selected based on age, education, experience, length of service and temperament.
"The military jury is usually more highly educated and usually is a panel of officers," he said. "Some charge that military juries are stacked for convictions-but in my 25 years experience I have never seen a stacked jury."
Civilian juries require a unanimous decision for conviction or acquittal. In military courts, a two-thirds majority is needed for conviction. If the vote is less, the defendant is acquitted, Swanson said.
Statistically, military courts have a 5 to 10 percent acquittal rate. In the civilian world, 95 percent of all those arrested plead guilty, sometimes on the advice of their public defenders, he added.
"One advantage of our system is that in the military our crime rate is very low," Swanson said. "In the Air Force, we have 400,000 active duty troops. This year we will try perhaps 1,000. That is an extremely low rate of crime."
He also told the law students that a military defendant has automatic appeals of any conviction. Persons found guilty in civilian courts generally can appeal only if they have the money to afford an appellate specialist trial lawyer.
"I would argue that we who practice in the military have nothing to apologize for," he said. "We are living now in perilous times. I am convinced that the good guys are going to win, and our military justice system will play a part in that victory."
Following Swanson's remarks, the students observed an actual appellate hearing. The Outreach Program was held in conjunction with the Fifth Annual Hemingway Paralegal Symposium attended by paralegals from the Army, Air Force and Navy from around the world. Law students from the St. Clair Bar association also attended.
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