Watson had already been convicted of a lesser charge in Australia and served 18 months, but then Attorney General Troy King moved to have Watson extradited back to Alabama to face trial here, on the theory that he had plotted the killing here.
Australia refused the extradition unless Alabama agreed not to seek the death penalty. Alabama has the highest per-capita death penalty in America. There is no death penalty in Australia, and in fact, in most of the world.
King agreed and the state moved forward with the prosecution that ended today.
There's no telling how much this effort cost Alabama taxpayers at a time when every state service is being slashed, but the flight from the U.S. to Australia alone is one of the most expensive in the world.
The cost to the fractured state image is another thing. On top of the Immigration Law, this affair may have made the state seem bloodthirsty, willing to use any means to prosecute.
I am amazed that Australia agreed to extradition on the grounds that this fellow "plotted" the murder while in Alabama.
ReplyDeleteThis truly is a legal "can of worms," and of course where's the evidence that his brain cells were "plotting?"
Yes, another expensive waste of our resources. But a number of Alabama lawyers got rich from this.