CAIRNS, Australia — Alabama's attorney general has attacked the Australian authorities for blocking his attempts to put on trial and execute an American alleged to have killed his wife on their honeymoon because he has already been acquitted of murder in Queensland. The Alabama official, Troy King, has denounced David "Gabe" Watson's conviction and 18-month sentence for manslaughter after the death of his wife, Christina, who drowned during a dive near the Great Barrier Reef. King wants to retry Watson, 32, in Alabama, where the newlyweds lived. But the Australian authorities are resisting Alabama's attempts to extradite Watson because the case involves the death penalty and raises the issue of double jeopardy. King has said he will not allow Australia's "view of what is just" to deter him from trying and executing Watson. The case drew international attention when the Australian authorities reversed their initial acceptance that the 2003 drowning was an accident after a photograph emerged of Christina Watson dead or dying on the seabed while her husband swam away. Her husband was charged with murder but convicted of manslaughter last year for failing to go to his wife's rescue. An Australian judge said there was no evidence that he intended to kill her. But the dead woman's family refused to accept the verdict, noting that witnesses saw Watson make contact with his wife before she sank to the bottom and he swam to the surface. King has written to Queensland's attorney general, Cameron Dick, asking for physical evidence from the case in order to put Watson on trial in Alabama if evidence shows he planned the killing before he left the state on honeymoon. But Dick has angered Troy by providing only trial transcripts and other documents already in the public domain. The Australians have also failed to meet a request for a Queensland detective involved in the investigation to fly to Alabama to brief the authorities there. Don Valeska, chief of the Alabama attorney general's violent crime division, told reporters that King is unhappy at the lack of co-operation from the Australians. "Troy King asked for the physical evidence months ago – the dive computers, tanks and other items we can present to an Alabama grand jury to show that Gabe Watson killed Tina," he said. "King is extremely upset that attorney general Dick would just send these documents and he will continue to work to get what is needed to bring a case." Dick has responded by accusing King of failing to follow the accepted procedures for cross-border co-operation on crime, which are either conducted between police forces or by national governments. Queensland's police minister, Andre Fraser, has said the case has a number of complications, including the issue of double jeopardy and Australia's position on the death penalty. "It's a matter that needs to be pursued by the American government in the first instance, not the state of Alabama," he said. King told an Australian radio station that he will not be deterred by foreign attitudes. "I won't allow the Australian view of what is just to influence what we do," he said. by Chris McGreal | 
