A U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret, Sgt. 1st Class Kelly A. Stewart, admitted to having a one-night stand with a 28-year-old German woman the night of August 22, 2008.
She did, too. Both knew that sex was part of the plan when they left the discotheque near Stuttgart. A few months later, however, her story changed, and the highly-decorated combat veteran found himself facing rape and kidnapping charges.
During court-martial proceedings that took place during three days in August 2009, the Green Beret faced an all-male Army court-martial panel comprised of both officers and enlisted soldiers who had recently returned from a 16-month deployment with the Army attorney serving as the lead prosecutor.
It took only two days for the panel to find the Green Beret guilty of numerous offenses — including aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping, forcible sodomy, and assault and battery — and another day for them to sentence him to eight years behind bars.
Incredibly, the conviction was based almost entirely on the testimony of the accuser, a one-time mental patient who, with the backing of the German government, refused to allow her medical records to be entered as evidence. No physical evidence was presented, and no eyewitnesses could be found.
Several witnesses came forward after the trial and during a post-trial hearing in May 2010. Those witnesses testified that the accuser had lied several times during the trial. Unfortunately for the Green Beret, their words were largely ignored by the court – but not by the one-star general with the authority to change the Green Beret’s life.
In August 2010, the general took five years off of his sentence and made him eligible for parole immediately. Nine months later, he was released on parole.
Today, more than seven months after his early release from the U.S. Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., the Green Beret is still fighting for a new trial so he can shed the “sexual offender” label that will stay with him the rest of his life IF justice remains out of reach.
Based on extensive interviews and never-before-published details taken from the actual record of trial, Three Days In August: A U.S. Army Special Forces Soldier’s Fight for Military Justice paints a portrait of military justice gone awry that’s certain to make your blood boil. More about this case will be presented on this page in coming weeks. This outrageous miscarriage of justice must be corrected.
To learn more use this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Days-August-Soldiers-ebook/dp/B005VVDVFE
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It is just such garbage as this even in our civil system that tens to piss one off severly. Had it not been for the General this mans hopes would have been on the rocks for ever possiblly. Why and how do any right thinking persons call guilty verdict with that little to go on is utterly rediculious and revolting. This man is one of our elite soldiers and should have been given a much better day in court for his defense. This is apalling and in the light of the recently signed Bill into law the NDAA this is just more of the obama insanity, This man is a Hitler clone for sure and this is another example of his system to run rough shod over Americans!
Two words that don’t go together – military justice. The one place in our society where you are guilty until proven innocent. Not judged by panels of peers, but of higher ranking NCO’s and Officers who tend to have held command positions and assume that you would not be in court if your were not guilty, because your commander would not have recommended court-martial if he didn’t already know you were guilty. The question is not innocence or guilt, but how long the sentence will be. It is a travesty of justice to our service members that they only have to be accused and it is a done deal. Commanders who by regulation have to initiate court-martial can be pressured by higher commanders to start proceedings or suffer on their career evaluations from their raters and indorsers. It all gets too political to be real.
The more I hear of these kinds of Military “Kangaroo Courts” and violations of our military member’s constitutional rights the more I think we need to discontinue all Military criminal charges against American soldiers and return the member to Washington D.C. or the person’s home area and try all criminal charges against them in the nearest Federal Court there. This way the G.I. can select his own attorney and be afforded all the protections of the U.S. Constitution that he/she is entitled to since he/she has been defending while in the military. When these troops get tried in a foreign country by our own military courts, rest assured, the G.I. is not going to have any Constitutional Rights. They have no access to all legal discovery, witnesses, etc. and will be found guilty. The military will try to pacify the local governments to show that the U.S. does prosecute wrongdoers and trample all over the serviceman’s constitutional rights, even if the “wrongdoers” might be completely innocent. Congress are you listening ?……you have the right to make this change. Use Military Tribunals only for trying foreign enemy combatants overseas. Hell if Holder can bring Al Quada to the U.S. for trial, we sure as hell should be able to bring an American G.I. back to the U.S. for trial. At least the American people can see that he/she gets a fair trial that way.
As a footnote, I’d like to add: Hey ACLU, why do we never hear from you when it comes to constitutional rights of an American serviceman or woman being trampled? We heard from you about the Guantanamo enemy combatants “Rights” and the illegals “Rights” but you never speak up about any injustices being done to American service members or the American citizens nor attempt to do anything about ithem Do you only act when you think Obama might approve or neglect to act if you think he might disapprove? Keep in mind, if he gets any more power, he can have YOU disbanded as UNAMERICAN and ENEMIES OF THE COUNTRY !!