Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has appointed Walter Huffman, Texas Tech University School of Law dean emeritus and current Texas Tech law professor, to the Defense Legal Policy Board. Huffman also will co-chair the board subcommittee examining military justice in combat zones.
Huffman says the first mission for the board and the subcommittee will be to “look at the issue of how our military justice system is working in the deployed environment.” He says that the goal is to make sure justice is done in cases where civilian deaths are attributable to U.S. forces. Huffman adds that it is important for Afghan people who lost loved ones to have confidence that, if someone should be held criminally responsible, he or she will be.
Another part of the board’s initial task is ensuring “that, because war is a difficult operation for the young men and women who are fighting, the rights of those who cause death inadvertently are protected,” Huffman says.
Huffman, a retired major general and former judge advocate in the Army, says he was privileged to have the opportunity to serve the country again. “I am quite honored to have been selected for this very important task.”
Richard Rosen, a Texas Tech law professor and director of the Center for Military Law and Policy, has been appointed to the military justice subcommittee. Rosen, a retired colonel and judge advocate in the Army, says he worked for Huffman in the Army and also at Texas Tech and is “honored to be on any committee of which [Huffman] is in charge.”
Rosen says being appointed to the subcommittee was “something that I never expected” and “I’m thrilled to be a part of it.”
-- Christine Lesicko
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