This article was posted to the Houston Chronicle, August 14 2009.
FORT HOOD, Texas — A Fort Hood soldier who refused deployment to Afghanistan has been sentenced to a year confinement and received a bad-conduct discharge from the Army.
After a two-day court martial Friday, Sgt. David Travis Bishop was found guilty Friday of four counts, including going absent without leave and disobeying a lawful order.
Bishop, 26, from Louisville, Ky., has said that after serving 14 months in Iraq, he began studying his Bible and started believing that war is wrong.
His attorney James Branum said Bishop didn't know he could apply for conscientious objector status until three days before his unit deployed, so he went AWOL for a week while he prepared his application. But then he turned himself in.
Branum said if Bishop is granted conscientious objector, it can be used in his appeal.
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