News

300 Military Veterans Now on Death Row

Published

11 years ago

November 16, 2015

More than one million veterans have returned from wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and the Middle East with symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Most veterans go on to live exemplary lives and are rightly honored for bravely serving their country. However, for a small but significant number, their mental wounds contributed to their committing acts of violence and they are now on death row.

Many others with similar problems have already been executed.

A new report released on the eve of Veterans Day by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) exposes the scope of this crisis and calls on authorities to better account for service members facing execution and identify where the system has fallen short. DPIC estimates that there are at least 300 veterans on death row, representing about 10 percent of the nation’s death row population.

Read “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty” at http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/veterans.

The country honored its military veterans Wednesday, and it may be a sobering and surprising revelation that many veterans have been adjudged as “the worst of the worst,” condemned to death, and executed by the government they once served.

The first person executed this year was Andrew Brannan, a decorated combat veteran who fought in Vietnam, but returned with PTSD. He qualified for 100 percent disability from the Veterans Administration because of his mental disabilities.

In a fleeting moment of out-of-character violence, he killed a police officer who had stopped him for speeding. At his trial, Brannan’s lawyer made little mention of the mental scars from his military service and the prosecution mocked his claim of PTSD.

The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles denied him clemency. Other veterans have received their medals for dedicated service while on death row, but no real mercy.

“PTSD is not an excuse for all criminal acts, but it is a serious mental and emotional disorder that should be a strong mitigating factor against imposing the death penalty,” said Richard Dieter, senior program director of the Death Penalty Information Center and author of “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty.”

“Defense attorneys representing veterans accused of capital crimes often fail to investigate and present evidence of PTSD and other war-related mental injuries,” said Dieter. “Prosecutors, judges and juries are often not adequately informed about the psychological effects of being immersed in combat, even though the mental scars of war can be just as debilitating as physical injuries.”

“At a time in which the death penalty is being imposed less and less, it is disturbing that so many veterans who were mentally and emotionally scarred while serving their country are now facing execution,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the information center. “

“It is our hope that a better understanding of the extreme and long-lasting effects of trauma and the resulting disabilities many veterans have experienced will lead to a larger conversation about imposing capital punishment on trauma survivors and other people with severe mental illnesses.”