Alabama "frustrated" by Watson delay

Peter Mitchell -

Alabama's top prosecutor says he is frustrated by the Australian government's decision to delay the deportation to the US of honeymoon dive killer Gabe Watson over fears a death penalty case will be launched.

Don Valeska, head of the Alabama attorney-general's violent crime division, said that under US federal and Alabama law Watson can't face the death penalty so Australian authorities have no reason to be concerned.

"There's no trickery going on," an exasperated Mr Valeska told AAP.

Watson, a 33-year-old from Hoover, Alabama, pleaded guilty in a Queensland court last year to the manslaughter of his newlywed wife, Tina, for her scuba diving death off the coast of Townsville in 2003.

Watson was sentenced to a minimum 18 months' jail and was due to complete the sentence at the Borallon Correctional Centre, outside of Brisbane, on Thursday.

Alabama authorities were so dismayed by what they thought was a weak sentence by the Queensland courts they planned to prosecute Watson for the murder and kidnapping of Tina in the Alabama courts.

Mr Valeska hoped Watson would be immediately deported from Australia on Thursday, but the Australian government this week indicated Watson would be held in immigration detention while fresh assurances were sought that Watson would not face a death penalty case in the US.

The delay is the latest obstacle thrown in the path of Alabama's prosecutors, with Queensland attorney-general Cameron Dick earlier this year refusing to hand over evidence in the Watson case to US investigators until Alabama attorney-general Troy King agreed to drop the death penalty as a sentencing option.

Mr King in June sent Mr Dick a letter agreeing to take the death penalty off the table. In response, Mr Dick sent the evidence Alabama requested.

That letter ended Alabama's ability to seek the death penalty, Mr Valeska said.

"In Mr King's letter of June 25th to Mr Dick he states: 'I have hereby instructed my prosecutors to proceed with this case with the maximum possible sentence of life without parole'," Mr Valeska said.

"Mr Dick wrote back and said he accepted it.

"It is binding under US Supreme Court and Alabama Supreme Court decisions."

Mr Valeska said he was shocked when he was informed by the media earlier this week the Australian government was now blocking Watson's deportation.

Read more...

 

Posted via http://batavia08.posterous.com batavia08's posterous