On the recordJune 13, 2013
I really respect the gentleman and what he's bringing forward, but the reality is that mandatory minimums have been shown to actually reduce the incidence of reporting. Judges and juries need the ability to decide with discretion and not strictly by its appearance. Sometimes--and we've seen this many times-- mandatory minimums can have the opposite effect: encouraging jurors to make a decision based on the potential sentence as opposed to the facts. That's why I'm standing in opposition, because we also know that organizations who have worked very hard to look at this issue worry that this could go in the wrong direction. Protect our Defenders, which has been a very strong advocacy group for victims, worries that when a jury knows that a perpetrator will automatically be dishonorably discharged, that the jury will be less likely to assign confinement charges in addition. They need to see the full picture. So we must take caution to judge every case individually. As we have additional speakers, I reserve the balance of my time.
