TITLE: GCN CIRCULAR NUMBER: 8304 SUBJECT: GRB080928: redshift retraction DATE: 08/10/01 15:53:55 GMT FROM: Antonino Cucchiara at PSU A. Cucchiara and D. B. Fox (Penn State) report on behalf of a larger collaboration: We re-processed the data acquired on GRB080928 in order to reconcile our results with the redshift identification reported by Vreesvijk et al. (GCN 8301). Upon comparison of our two individual exposures, we cannot confirm the presence of the metal absorption features reported in GCN 8300. We therefore conclude that the redshift z=2.49 for GRB 080928 reported by us previously is not correct. Line misidentifications are probably the result of inaccurate sky-line and sky-fringe modeling in extraction of the 1D spectrum. We retract also the claim of a DLA system at z~2.5. We confirm the detection of strong MgII doublet and associated MgI absorption from a system at z=1.69, which - as reported by Vreeswijk et al. - represents the lower limit and most likely redshift for GRB 080928. We apologize for any confusion.