On the recordMarch 7, 2012
I rise again this morning to highlight the epidemic of rape and sexual assault in the military. I'm here to decry a code of dishonor that protects rapists and punishes victims. I'm here to call out an entrenched chain of command that squashes reports of sexual assault because they bring unwanted attention to the unit. I stand here today, as I have 15 previous times, to tell the story of a U.S. servicemember who was raped by a fellow servicemember and then robbed of justice by an unfair system that puts too much power in the hands of a single commander. The current system of injustice is shamefully unfair. The story I'm about to tell is of Airman First Class Jessica Nicole Hinves of the United States Air Force, whose attempt for justice was snatched away by a single commander who was only on the job for 4 days and reversed a decision to move forward with a court-martial. The Department of Defense estimates that more than 19,000 servicemembers were raped or sexually assaulted in 2010, yet only 13 percent of them actually reported the rape; and of those 13 percent, only 8 percent of the perpetrators were prosecuted and an even smaller number were convicted. Airman First Class Jessica Nicole Hinves, a former member of the Air Force, was raped in 2009 by a coworker who broke into her room through the bathroom at approximately 3:00 a.m. She sought medical care and bravely reported the rape.…
