Soldier who refused to deploy gets jail time - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Soldier who refused to deploy gets jail time

A Fort Hood, Texas, soldier who refused to deploy to Afghanistan was sentenced Friday to a year confinement and a bad-conduct discharge from the Army.

Sgt. David Travis Bishop, 26, was sentenced after a two-day special court-martial, where he faced charges of willful disobedience of a lawful order from a superior noncommissioned officer; being absent without leave from May 20-27; and missing movement through design on or about May 18 and May 20.

Bishop, who joined the Army in April 2004 as a multichannel transmission systems operator-maintainer, was found guilty of all four charges against him.

In addition to confinement and a bad-conduct discharge, Bishop also was sentenced to a reduction in rank to private and a $933 monthly pay reduction for 12 months.

A six-panel jury of officers determined the outcome of Bishop’s case during the special court-martial.

Bishop, of 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 as he prepared his application. He later turned himself in.

Branum said if Bishop is granted conscientious objector status, it can be used in his appeal.