Saturday, November 10, 2007

Court-martial of Watada might not come

Christian Hill
The Olympian

1st Lt. Ehren Watada, the Fort Lewis officer who refused to deploy to Iraq last year, might never see another courtroom.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle on Thursday imposed a preliminary injunction to temporarily bar the Army from trying Watada a second time while saying the officer likely will prevail on the merits of his pending case.

Since his first court-martial ended in mistrial in February, Watada's lawyers have argued that trying him a second time would violate his Fifth Amendment protection from being tried for the same offense twice. On Oct. 3, as Watada's appeals in the military court system were being exhausted, his attorneys took the rare step of asking a federal civilian court to step in.

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