A bill that would update Alaska’s Military Code of Justice and strengthen penalties for certain violations has advanced from the House Judiciary Committee.
The bill would update a code that has been largely unused by the Alaska National Guard. The Guard has not used it to court martial a service member since 1955.
Progress on the bill comes more than a year after the National Guard Bureau found that the guard had not been properly investigating or adjudicating Guard member misconduct cases and did not have a process for coordinating with local law enforcement in Guard member misconduct cases.
Proposed updates to the code include changes in what criminal behavior is subject to court-martial proceedings.
