Lawyers in Abu Ghraib trial request new judge News
Lawyers in Abu Ghraib trial request new judge

[JURIST] Lawyers for US Army Pfc. Lynndie England [JURIST news archive; Wikipedia profile] will request at a pretrial hearing Thursday that Judge Col. James Pohl be removed from the case. Pohl had presided over England's first trial, in which he threw out her guilty plea [JURIST report] after her statements were contradicted by those made by former boyfriend Pvt. Charles Graner Jr. [JURIST news archive, Wikipedia profile], who had previously been convicted and sentenced to ten years for abuses at the Iraqi prison [JURIST report]. England's attorneys contend that the rejection of the guilty plea was improvident and unfair; they also state that their plans to call Judge Pohl as a witness disqualifies him from serving as judge. AP has more. KLTV in Jacksonville, Texas has local coverage.