Alabama scuba trial

Prosecutor Don Valeska said "this case is over forever," since there is no appeal possible. Baez defends judge in murder case Could Watson be tried again for murder? That sentiment was echoed by Tommy Thomas, Tina's father, who said "we're very disappointed" by Nail's decision. After his wife's death, Watson returned from Australia -- where media dubbed him "The Honeymoon Killer" -- to the United States and remarried five years later. That same year, in , he pleaded guilty in Australia to criminally negligent manslaughter and subsequently served 18 months in prison in that country.

In October , an Alabama grand jury indicted Watson on two counts -- murder for pecuniary gain and kidnapping where a felony occurred. Those charges were based on the premise that Watson hatched the plot to kill his wife while in Alabama. The doctrine of double jeopardy -- which says that a person cannot be tried or punished twice for the same crime -- did not apply because two separate sovereigns, a state government and a foreign government, were seeking to prosecute, said John Lentine, a Birmingham criminal defense attorney and law school professor.

After his sentence was complete, the Australian government held Watson for a short time in immigration detention in light of its policy of not extraditing anyone who might face the death penalty. Alabama is operating on the theory that Watson either planned to kill his wife before their honeymoon trip to Australia or intended to return there to collect an insurance policy, King said.

He declined to discuss evidence Alabama may have against Watson. On Thursday, an immigration spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity because of department policy, said the Australian government had received assurances from U.

Watson's removal," she said. She would not give details on the timing of his deportation but said it would be "as soon as possible. Adrian Braithwaite, Watson's Brisbane-based lawyer, said the Australian government had refused to show him a copy of the U. He said the immigration department had pledged to provide him with 48 hours notice before Watson was put on a plane. He said Watson was ready for whatever may happen upon his return to the United States.

In , nearly five years after Tina drowned, the Queensland state coroner found there was sufficient evidence to charge Watson with her death, and he was officially charged with murder a few months later. Defence lawyers say Tina Watson's death was misinterpreted by the Australian authorities, who took a problem with Watson's dive computer as evidence of possible guilt, and proceeded to view new evidence with that in mind.

Brett Bloomston, Watson's lawyer, sketched out a completely different scenario of what happened during the dive on the Great Barrier Reef, saying Tina Watson panicked and knocked off her husband's diving mask, forcing him to swim to the surface without her.

What's even more tragic is the blame Gabe has had to live with this last number of years," he said. Both sides agree that the dive instructor failed to follow his own rules, allowing Tina to proceed to the reef without orientation dive.