'We expect junior enlisted members to be able to push back against unlawful orders even if it comes from high-ranking officers, and that would be an unlawful order,' Christensen said of an officer attempting to pressure a lower-ranking service member to rule a certain way. 'The Supreme Court has recognized that unanimous verdicts are the gold standard of justice for all Americans, other than those in the military,' said Don Christensen, a retired Air Force colonel who served as the service's chief prosecutor.Ĭhristensen, who stressed that he believes court-martial verdicts should be unanimous for both convictions and acquittals, said the military has resisted changing the standard by arguing that requiring unanimous verdicts could slow down court-martial proceedings or lead to unlawful command influence. That makes military courts the last in the nation that don't require unanimous verdicts after the Supreme Court ruled in 2020 that the Sixth Amendment requires guilty verdicts in civilian criminal trials to be unanimous.

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