Watada Case: Mistrial
The judge overseeing the court martial of Lt. Ehren Watada for failure to deploy to Iraq has declared a mistrial. Lt. Col. John Head believed that a pretrial agreement with the prosecution, where Watada "admitted that he missed his brigade's deployment to Iraq," was sufficient to find him guilty. A new trial has been tentatively set for next month.
Last year, Watada, 28, wrote his superior officers and said that the believed that the war in Iraq is illegal. He is the "first commissioned officer to refuse to be deployed to Iraq." Watanda asked to be deployed elsewhere, such as Afghanistan.
He has been charged with missing movement to Iraq and with two counts of conduct unbecoming an officer.
Before his trial, Watada stipulated that "he did not board the plane with the rest of his unit to Iraq." He also "admitted to making public statements criticizing the war and accusing U.S. President George W. Bush's administration of deceiving the American people to enter into a war of aggression."
In exchange, the prosecution dropped "two additional charges of conduct unbecoming an officer."
It was this stipulation that caused the judge to declare the case a mistrial, at the government's request.
Richard Swain, a retired officer who teaches officer ethics at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, also testified Tuesday. Swain said officers are under no obligation to follow an order they deem illegal, "but if they make that determination, they have to be right. And if they're not right, they will be held accountable."
But the judge made it clear before the trial began that Watada could not argue the legality of the war as his defense. And the Army didn't want that, either:
"There is an inconsistency in the stipulation of fact," Head said. "I don't know how I can accept this … as we stand here now."
He said he could not allow the court-martial to proceed without dismissing part of the stipulations, which would have been a major tactical advance for Watada.
"We've got the immovable object hitting the irresistible force," the judge said at one point, even as prosecutors and defense lawyers both said they wanted the court-martial to continue. Nevertheless, the prosecutors moved for a mistrial.
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