Troy King's Pioneer Effort in Uncharted Territory

Troy King is about to take the State of Alabama into what his office is calling uncharted territory. The Attorney General's office is referring to King's attempt to prosecute David Gabriel Watson for the murder of Tina Thomas Watson, his wife of eleven days. King's problem with such a prosecution is a little thing called double jeopardy. Gabe Watson has just been convicted in a Queensland, Australia, court of manslaughter in the death of his young bride, a woman whom he had just insured as the couple began their Australian dream honeymoon.

King's office is the first to admit the Alabama prosecution may be just a little iffy. Even if Watson plotted his bride's death in this state, the crime took place in Queensland, and Australian courts have already adjudicated the murder. Legal experts are already chiming in on King's "pioneer effort," but such actions are not all that pioneering for TK the AG.

Only last year, King attempted to bar the State of Maryland from releasing Arthur Bremer, the man convicted in the attempted assassination of then Alabama Gov. George Wallace. King's legal, or perhaps illegal, ploys failed to work against the system of another American state; we can hardly imagine what he hopes to accomplish by attempting to circumvent the legal ruling of a Queensland court.

Is Gabe Watson the proverbial piece of trash (if you prefer, you may insert an even less delicate word here)? Certainly. Does our Attorney General, no matter how loved by some in the Shoals, have any authority to re-prosecute Watson? We're sure King knows the answer to that question. We're also sure the fact that King has no aspirations for the 2010 governor's race does not preclude any such lofty goals in 2014.


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