Nco’s Rape Sentence Called Either Too Lenient Or Racially Tainted

Army Staff Sgt. Delmar G. Simpson was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years in prison for raping six women trainees, touching off a storm of complaints from women’s advocates that the sentence was too lenient, and from black leaders that it was racially tainted and far too harsh.

Simpson, whose case was the most serious in the Army’s sex harassment scandal, was sentenced for his conviction on 18 rape counts and 34 other offenses, most of them related to sexual misconduct. The sergeant, a 12-year veteran who was found to have coerced sex from trainees at Maryland’s Aberdeen Proving Ground, could be eligible for parole in eight years.

The sentence “sends a message to women in the military that the talk of zero tolerance is just talk - that there’s a great tolerance in the military for sexual misconduct,” said Karen Johnson, a former Air Force colonel and a vice president of the National Organization for Women.

While Simpson, 32, could have been sentenced to life in jail for each rape count, she noted, the sentence he received amounts to 15 months for each count. He was also subject to 32 years in jail for the 11 counts of consensual sex to which he pleaded guilty, she said, declaring that Simpson “would have gotten far more from a civilian court.”

“This doesn’t seem to be terribly severe,” agreed Georgia Sadler, a retired Navy captain and founder of the Women in the Military Information Network.

From another corner, though, Simpson’s defense team and black leaders contended the sentence showed the Army had railroaded 11 black sergeants and a black captain in its overeagerness to respond to the complaints of women.

“This is cruel and unusual punishment,” said Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Ala., first vice chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. “This is going to have a chilling effect on all those people who are still to be tried, and on people who are going to enter the service, and on the state of race relations in America.”

Simpson’s attorneys, who had for the most part played down the racial angle in the trial, joined in. Frank J. Spinner warned that the message of the sentence was “If you’re black, and an African American drill sergeant in the Army, you’re an endangered species.”