On Friday, August 14, Sergeant Travis Bishop was court martialled at Fort Hood Texas, where he serves. He entered a plea of not guilty to two counts of missing movement, disobeying a lawful order and going absent without leave (AWOL).
The jury was composed exclusively of senior officers. One had to be awakened during the proceedings. Another, visibly showed his disbelief and disgust during the defense's presentation of its case.
James Branum, Bishop's civilian attorney, said he wanted to set a precedent with this case. His contention was that to deploy a soldier without telling him of all his legal options for avoiding deployment is illegal. He told truthout.org "We want to change the law, and I would argue that when soldiers are informed of their deployment, which is generally two to six months in advance, they should be giving training about CO status. I will argue that if you aren't given the training, you can't deploy."
Branum called two soldiers to the stand who testified that they hadn't been told that they had the option of filing for CO status. Captain Christopher Hall, Bishop's commanding officer testified that he had never told Bishop's unit of their option to file for CO status.
Lt Colonel Ron Leninger, a chaplain testified that he had interviewed Bishop for 45 minutes and concluded that his convictions were not strong enough to make him a conscientious objector. He also said that Bishop didn't qualify because he hadn't joined a local church. When asked if people had the right to break the law when his conscience required it, Leninger said "Perhaps, but tat would be sad for them to do so. Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, was executed for breaking Roman law in order to follow his conscience."
Bishop remembered the interview being closer to 20 minutes, during which time Leninger took two calls and was constantly texting.
The jury found Bishop guilty of all charges. His sentence was one year in prison, a rank change to private, 1/3 pay for 1 year and a bad conduct discharge
Branum plans to appeal the case to as high a court as necessary, "...and my hope is that when troops are going to be deployed, they'll be read their Bishop rights."
As Bishop left the building, a group of soldiers, one of them active duty, saluted him, as he flashed them a peace sign. He said "This is the beginning. When I get out, I'm going to be louder, more active and pissed off."
Comments
of course travis deserves what he got. he is a coward. a CO status granted to a soldier like him? not even me. i know for a fact that travis sat out his deployment in iraq in a comfy A/C controlled office and his evenings having coffee and playing his guitar or video games with us, his "peers". none of us judged him when he decided to stay for his "beliefs". however we all were betrayed when he decided to ditch out on a team of specialists that he was supposed to lead out to afghanistan. if he had chosen to deploy, he would have spent an entire year sitting on his butt in a shelter or playing quitar hero with his "peers". i think he is a coward for ditching out on our teams, but i give him profound credit for taking the hard road. i decided to sit on my ass, play games, watch movies, and talk to my wife and collect $50,000+ for the year. he chose to sit on his ass, be told when to eat, when to exercise, have little to no contact with the outside world, and to be barred from most regul
CONT'D......and to be barred from most regular employment for life. he did not stand up for his beliefs, he crapped on them. i hope he has a happy, calm life when he gets out. i hope i never see him with my own to eyes ever again.
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