Actions

Breaking down the difference between the military justice system, civilian courts in McGraw's case

SPENCER WEINER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

FILE - Picture of an empty courtroom on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Spencer Weiner, Pool)

By: Bella Popadiuk

Posted

FORT HOOD, Texas (KXXV) — Army Maj. Blaine McGraw remains in the Bell County Jail as his case moves through the military justice system, known as the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Watch the story here:

Breaking down the difference between military justice system, civilian courts in McGraw case

The process is very different from what most people know about the civilian court process.

"By analogy, every state has its own penal code," said Brian Bouffard, a criminal and military defense attorney who has practiced law for 28 years in both court systems.

The Uniform Code of Military Justice, or UCMJ, is the military's criminal law system.

"They're all a little bit different, but the fundamentals, especially the constitutional fundamentals, are the same," Bouffard said.

Criminal charges against McGraw are being preferred by the Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel, or OSTC. If he's tried, the military case will play out through the UCMJ.

"The act of drafting charges and formally serving them on an accused is called preferral, pre-referral, OK? Which means this is taking place before a referral," Bouffard said.

Unlike civilian courts, military cases don't have permanent courthouses or judges. A court-martial is created for each case and prosecution decisions go through trained military lawyers called special trial counsel.

"So just like in civilian court, an accused in a military system has a right to have his or his or her case tried by either a judge alone or a military jury. It's called a panel of court members, is the technical term for a military jury," Bouffard said.

A military jury is picked by the prosecution and consists of all active duty service members who are senior in rank to the defendant.

"The rates of pleas in the military are roughly similar to the rates of pleas in the civilian world, which is to say the vast majority of cases don't go to trial. They are handled by plea," Bouffard said.

Even if McGraw is tried through the UCMJ, he still could face criminal charges for any actions off-base from the state.

The UCMJ can have goals that sometimes go beyond prosecution.

"Under the UCMJ are certain things that are not crimes in the civilian world, but that the military has chosen for various reasons to treat as crimes in the military system," Bouffard said.

UCMJ trials are public unless they're dealing with classified information. With the charges against McGraw preferred, next steps include a preliminary hearing officer going through evidence to see if there's probable cause for each charge before referring it for trial by general court-martial.

If charges are referred, the case will be assigned to a military judge who will schedule dates for the trial.

Below is our previous coverage:

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.