A second chance for justice

de Asher Flynn

Tina Thomas would have been turning 35 on the day that her husband of less than two weeks stood trial for her murder in the Jefferson County Courthouse in Birmingham, Alabama, US. Eight years and almost four months had passed since Tina died on her honeymoon, while scuba diving near the SS Yongala wreck on the Great Barrier Reef in Northern Queensland, Australia. During this period, there had been extensive police investigations conducted by local, state and federal agencies in Queensland and the United States; a coronial inquest; a ridiculed plea bargain; a successful appeal against the manifest inadequacy of a 12 month sentence; 18 months served in Borallon Correctional Centre in Queensland; a grand jury indictment in Alabama; several days spent in an Australian immigration detention centre; an international agreement not to seek the death penalty; a deportation and several pre-trial hearings -- every step of which was covered by endless public, media and social commentary. As the trial of Gabe Watson on a charge of capital murder for pecuniary gain began, so too did the possible final chapter in this tragic, drawn-out story. Monday, 13 February 2012, provided the date for the commencement of Gabe's capital murder trial in Alabama, and the possibility that a second chance for justice could unfold...or could it? From the perspectives of the police investigators, the prosecution, the defence and Tina and Gabe's families, this book examines the ongoing quest for justice in the controversial double prosecution of Gabe Watson for the death of Tina Thomas.