Court-Martial Trial Practice Blog
From the Killeen Daily Herald News, by Rebecca LaFlure
(photo Steven Doll)
Sgt. Travis Bishop, 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, walks out of a military court at Fort Hood with supporter Cindy Thomas, manager of Under the Hood Café Thursday afternoon on the first day of his special court-martial.
A Fort Hood soldier who says fighting in a war violates his religious views faces up to a year in jail for refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan.
Sgt. Travis Bishop, with the 57th Expeditionary Signal Battalion, pleaded not guilty at a special court-martial Thursday to two counts of missing movement, disobeying a lawful order and going absent without leave (AWOL). If he’s found guilty, Bishop also could be demoted to the lowest Army rank and given a bad-conduct discharge.
Why has he not received the same “deal” as Spc Victor Agosto who was prosecuted at summary court-martial not at a special? Is there an argument for a centralised convening authority for these types of cases (perhaps the CG at Fort Knox or Fort Sill(?)) to get some consistency in cases?