As Americans become increas­ing­ly aware of the role of com­bat trau­ma in the devel­op­ment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and oth­er men­tal health dis­or­ders, the shift in pub­lic per­cep­tions towards vet­er­ans suf­fer­ing from these dis­or­ders has played out in the courts in recent death penal­ty cas­es. In 2018, at least four mil­i­tary vet­er­ans fac­ing death sen­tences have instead been sen­tenced to life in prison, and anoth­er two vet­er­ans won relief in their death-penal­ty cas­es. One mil­i­tary vet­er­an has been exe­cut­ed so far this year.

In January, retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Castellaw (pic­tured) wrote in sup­port of exempt­ing men­tal­ly ill vet­er­ans from cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, say­ing, ​“we can do bet­ter at rec­og­niz­ing the invis­i­ble wounds that some of our vet­er­ans still car­ry while ensur­ing they get the treat­ment that they deserve and that we owe them for their sac­ri­fice. …[W]e can do bet­ter by stay­ing tough on crime but becom­ing smarter on sen­tenc­ing those whose actions are impact­ed by severe men­tal ill­ness.” Prosecutors and juries in Indiana, Florida, Colorado, and Virginia have con­sid­ered the mil­i­tary ser­vice and ser­vice-relat­ed dis­or­ders of mur­der defen­dants and deter­mined that life sen­tences were more appro­pri­ate than the death penal­ty. In the Virginia tri­al of Iraq war vet­er­an Ronald Hamilton, his attor­neys pre­sent­ed evi­dence that he had been a mod­el sol­dier who had saved the life of a fel­low ser­vice­man, but faced PTSD-relat­ed dis­or­ders and a dete­ri­o­rat­ing fam­i­ly life when he returned home. At Glen Law Galloway’s tri­al in Colorado, Denver pub­lic defend­er Daniel King pre­sent­ed four days of tes­ti­mo­ny about Galloway’s char­ac­ter and back­ground, includ­ing how the for­mer Army vet­er­an ​“snapped” fol­low­ing the col­lapse of his rela­tion­ship with his girl­friend. King argued, ​“Mr. Galloway is not just the worst thing that he’s done. He’s com­mit­ted many acts of kind­ness, friend­ship, ser­vice, love and duty.” In May, pros­e­cu­tors with­drew the death penal­ty in exchange for guilty pleas in two unre­lat­ed cas­es involv­ing mil­i­tary vet­er­ans Darren Vann in Indiana and Esteban Santiago in Florida. Santiago faced fed­er­al charges for a mass shoot­ing, but pros­e­cu­tors agreed to a plea deal because Santiago, an Iraq war vet­er­an, suf­fers from schiz­o­phre­nia and audi­to­ry hal­lu­ci­na­tions, had unsuc­cess­ful­ly sought treat­ment and assis­tance from the Veterans Administration, and had been com­mit­ted to a men­tal hos­pi­tal because of the seri­ous­ness of his mental illness.

Two death-sen­tenced pris­on­ers were grant­ed relief this year as a result of fail­ures by their defense coun­sel to inves­ti­gate and present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence relat­ed to their mil­i­tary ser­vice and their ser­vice-relat­ed men­tal health dis­or­ders. Andrew Witt, an air force vet­er­an who had been on U.S. mil­i­tary death row, received a life sen­tence after a court found his attor­neys inef­fec­tive for fail­ing to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that he had suf­fered a trau­mat­ic brain injury. Robert Fisher​’s death sen­tence was reversed by a Pennsylvania fed­er­al court in part because his lawyer did not inves­ti­gate or present evi­dence relat­ed to his ser­vice in Vietnam. Fisher was a Purple Heart recip­i­ent who strug­gled with brain dam­age, drug abuse, and men­tal health prob­lems after his service.

On July 18, Ohio exe­cut­ed Robert Van Hook, an hon­or­ably dis­charged vet­er­an who was suf­fer­ing from long-term effects of phys­i­cal and sex­u­al abuse as a child and untreat­ed men­tal health issues at the time of the offense. Van Hook had been unable to obtain care for his men­tal health and addic­tion issues from vet­er­ans ser­vice agen­cies after his discharge.

A 2015 report by the Death Penalty Information Center, Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty, esti­mat­ed that approx­i­mate­ly 300 vet­er­ans are on death row across the United States, many suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness caused or exac­er­bat­ed by their military service.

(Posted by DPIC, November 12, 2018.) See Mental Illness and U.S. Military.

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