In June Dave Watson was convicted of manslaughter in Queensland. This followed the death of his wife in October 2003 on a diving holiday which was their honeymoon. The Queensland coroner felt that it was likely that Mr. Watson had turned his wife’s air off and held her under water until she died and felt there was a strong case to charge him with murder. Instead Mr. Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for 4.5 years.
The Alabama Attorney General has said that he plans to bring a murder charge against Mr. Watson when he returns to the US after serving his sentence in Australia. There is a bit of a legal grey area, as the US has a “double jeopardy” rule which prevents an individual for being tried twice for the same crime. There is an exception if the crime is committed overseas and the country in question does not press charges. In this case the Attorney General is arguing that even though it is the same incident, the Queensland prosecutors didn’t bring a murder charge.
There’s more information on Divernet’s website.
