David Gurfein: Advocating on Behalf of Accused American Service Members

“The UCMJ has some key aspects to it which do not afford military personnel the same degree of presumption of innocence that you’d see in a civilian court.”

On December 26th, Asher Ellis was joined by David Gurfein for a conversation about the United States military justice system and how it pertains to American service members who are accused of having committed war crimes. Mr. Gurfein is a retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and the current CEO of United American Patriots, a nonprofit organization that aims to ensure the legal rights of these service members are protected during the course of proceedings against them. In cases in which a conviction is reached that the organization deems ill-founded, it also can, at times, advocate for presidential pardons. In this discussion, Mr. Gurfein draws attention to a few landmark cases in which his organization has participated, in addition to sharing his thoughts on how the Uniform Code of Military Justice might be improved to better emphasize the presumption of innocence.

Good morning, Mr. Gurfein. Thanks for joining me today.

Good morning. Thanks for having me.

What is United American Patriots?

United American Patriots is a group of several hundred thousand people across the United States, a nonprofit 501(c)(3). It’s an apolitical organization, founded in 2005 by a retired United States Marine who had served in Vietnam—a warrior who is highly decorated, who saw the challenges some of the warriors were facing and how politics was motivating various allegations. He was concerned that the warriors were not having their rights preserved.

Major Bill Donahue saw these Marines being paraded around in orange jumpsuits with shackles on, based upon cases coming out of Iraq. And there were questions of whether or not these warriors had committed crimes in combat, known as “war crimes.” Whether they were guilty or innocent, members of Congress were already calling them “murderers,” which is tipping the scales of justice against them. He founded this organization to raise funds for their legal defense.