Military barred from retrying Watada on 3 of 5 court-martial charges

Seattle Times ^ | October 21, 2008 | Hal Bernton

[jazusamo]

A federal judge ruled that Lt. Ehren Watada, who refused to deploy to Iraq with his Ft. Lewis combat brigade, couldn't be retried on several of the charges against him. But the ruling still may allow the military to try him on two court-martial counts.

Citing the constitutional protections against being tried twice for the same crime, a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that 1st Lt. Ehren Watada cannot face a second court martial on three of five counts resulting from his high-profile 2006 refusal to deploy to Iraq with a Fort Lewis brigade.

The ruling by Judge Benjamin Settle, however, leaves open the possibility of a second prosecution on two other counts involving conduct unbecoming an officer.

In the ruling, Settle abstained from ruling on the constitutionality of those charges, and said it was up to a military court to consider "if constitutional defects" would be present in a second court-martial on those counts."

The ruling keeps Watada, who has been assigned a desk job at Fort Lewis since his refusal to deploy back to Iraq with his combat brigade, in a kind of legal limbo.

[goldstategop]

Treason gets rewarded by a federal judge... in Seattle.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[jazusamo]

2nd trial illegal, Watada argues

Watada court martial opens with feisty defense

[jazusamo]

Sure looks that way. The piece doesn’t say anything about the Army appealing and I don’t know if it can be.

[VeniVidiVici]

The ruling keeps Watada, who has been assigned a desk job at Fort Lewis since his refusal to deploy back to Iraq with his combat brigade, in a kind of legal limbo.

Son of a bitch should be sitting in jail, NOT behind a desk. Hopefully he's at least in an empty office with nothing in or around the desk or hung on the walls.

[jazusamo]

Agreed, he should have been in the stockade through this whole thing.

[Candor7]

Watada is from Hawaii? Maybe he is hooked up to Obama and can look forward to converting the Army to its Obama Community Action reincarnation.

Send him to Guantanamo as a cooks helper or on permanent prisoner latrine patrol assignment there.

[Jay Howard Smith]

Things sure have changed in the Military. In my days, they still couldn’t make you do a damn thing, but they could sure make you wish you did it .. !

[BIGLOOK]

Watada's first court martial, in February 2007, ended in a mistrial, and was halted over the objections of the defendant.

Watada's attorneys then claimed that a retrial would amount to "double jeopardy," the constitutional right to not be tried twice on the same charges. In his Tuesday ruling, Settle said that an Army judge "did not exercise sound discretion" in ruling a mistrial.

Reassign his sorry ass to Afghanistan.....after busting him down to Pvt and have him make up for 'Bad Time'.

[pabianice]

You cannot “bust” an officer down to an enlisted rank. All you can do is punish him/dismiss him from the service (an officer’s DD).

[BIGLOOK]

Actually, I knew that. Just wishful thinking.

However, having served on several juries, I know that mistrials can be brought forward again to retrial without violating the Double Jeopardy rule. This ruling puzzles me.