Anchorage Marine rapist walks without prison time

http://www.adn.com/2013/05/07/2894207/marine-convicted-of-rape-walks.html

Anchorage Marine rapist walks without prison time
Published: May 7, 2013 Updated 55 minutes ago
By MICHELLE THERIAULT BOOTS

When a 23-year-old woman accused Nicholas Howard, an Anchorage recruiter for the United States Marine Corps, of sexually assaulting her in 2011, police believed the case rested largely on DNA evidence.

At the time, the state crime lab that tests DNA had a backlog of hundreds of cases and many months.

So when the Marine Corps offered to take over the case from the Anchorage Police Department to expedite DNA processing, police agreed.

The result: DNA linked Nicholas Howard to the crime and he was court-martialed.

~snip~

It's not clear why the military chose not to give Howard jail time for an offense as serious as first-degree sexual assault.