DECEMBER 29, 2023 – On Dec. 27, 2023, the Navy Office of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC) reached full operational capacity. It met all statutory deadlines, and now has the necessary authority and manning to carry out its mission, providing essential legal support to the Fleet.
The Navy OSTC is a new legal organization with exclusive authority over covered offenses, primarily personal violence offenses specifically including sexual assault, and is responsible for prosecuting those offenses at general and special courts-martial.
The Navy OSTC’s special trial counsel (STC) are Navy judge advocates with specialized education, training, and experience, as well as the required temperament.
“This landmark change to the U.S. military justice system will significantly strengthen the independent prosecution of sexual assault and other serious criminal offenses in the Department of Defense,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III in a statement about the standup of the OSTCs across all services.
Rear Adm. Jon Stephens, who serves as the Navy’s first-ever lead special trial counsel, oversees the Navy OSTC. The Navy OSTC’s main headquarters is located at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C.
“The Navy OSTC’s primary mission is to achieve justice, and in doing so, provide an effective, efficient, respected, and trusted tool for maintaining good order and discipline in the Navy,” said Stephens. “We prepared extensively and we’re fully ready to assume OSTC’s weighty responsibilities.”
Beginning Dec. 28, 2023, Navy commands must report covered offenses to the Navy OSTC. Commands should consult the Navy JAG Corps website for OSTC office locations and points of contact, as well as a list of covered offenses. Importantly, the Navy’s victim reporting process remains the same; there have been no changes to existing procedures.
The Navy OSTC is divided into two regions, Norfolk, Va. and San Diego, Calif., with 10 field offices. All certified STCs must be members of the Navy JAG Corps’ military justice litigation career track. Selection to that track requires quantitative and qualitative experience, on-the-job training, and personal recommendations by senior judge advocates.
Each STC was selected by a board of senior Navy military justice experts and was personally detailed to a STC billet by the Judge Advocate General of the Navy.
The establishment of the Navy OSTC is accompanied by the implementation of several other, substantive military justice reforms. These include a new, military judge-alone sentencing system with parameters and criteria; expanded access by accused service members to the appellate court; broader notification rights for crime victims; randomized selection of service members detailed to court-martial panels; and increased resources and request procedures for defense counsel.
These sweeping changes to the military justice system were directed and recommended by the Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023 National Defense Authorization Acts, as well as the Secretary of Defense’s Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. Together, they represent the largest transformation of the system in more than 70 years.
In addition to increasing good order and discipline across the Fleet, these reforms will allow warfighters to focus even more closely on execution of the Navy’s critical mission, while also enhancing trust in the military justice system.
More information about the Navy OSTC is available online. Significant training and communication efforts across the Fleet are currently underway and will continue in 2024.