I've also been active on working to change the laws, now in three states, to eliminate the statute of limitations for the criminal prosecution of rape and sexual assault.
Unlike the militaries in Australia, Canada, Israel, Germany, the United Kingdom, and most of our NATO allies, who no longer allow unit commanders to determine the prosecution of sexual assault cases, American military law requires that the officers directly in command of individuals charged with sexual assault offenses decide how the cases are handled.
The prosecution of sexual assault in America remains very difficult.
Although Mr. Levin's measure would change the current system, it would keep prosecution of sexual assault cases within the chain of command, as the military wants.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York who worked on the bill, also lobbied to reform prosecution of sexual assault in the military.
At a hearing a few weeks ago, Mr. Levin compiled a witness list of people who supported keeping the prosecution of sexual assault cases within the chain of command as Ms. Gillibrand pushed to hear from more victims' advocates.
One bill to be debated this fall, sponsored by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, would take the prosecution of sexual assault cases outside a victim's chain of command, with a goal of increasing the number of people who report crimes without fear of retaliation.
"The prosecution of sexual assault across our entire country is abysmal," said Christine Evans, a victims' rights attorney and legal director of the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation.
"Rather than pushing institutions to become surrogates for the criminal justice system," she said, policymakers should ask if "more work should be done to improve that system's handling and prosecution of sexual assault cases".
Sen. Gillibrand's legislation would have taken the prosecution of sexual assault cases out of the military chain of command and given it to the independent Judge Advocates General Corps.
