'Double Jeopardy' Plea JeopardizesCop-Killing CU Thief's Retrial

WAUKESHA, Wis. - (04/25/05) -- The fate of a man convicted of a10-year-old crime spree that included two credit union heists andculminated in the murder of a police officer was sent to a federaljudge--the same judge that ordered the man retried because of jurorbias. Ted Oswald, now 29, has claimed he should not be retried forthe decade-old cop-slaying because to do so would violate hisconstitutional right against being tried twice for the samecrime--so-called double jeopardy. Oswald's double-jeopardy plea hasbeen sent to U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Adelman who threw outhis first conviction in 2003 after ruling the trial judge did notproperly investigate allegations of the jury's impartiality. JudgeAdelman's ruling was subsequently upheld by the Seventh CircuitCourt of Appeals. Oswald, then 19, was convicted along with hisfather James Oswald, of a crime spree that included the 1993 armedrobberies at Medical Systems CU, in Waukesha, and Landmark CU, inBrookfield, and ended with the shooting death of Waukesha PoliceCaptain James Lutz after the father and son robbed a Bank Onebranch.