DPIC Releases New Report, ​“Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty”

On November 10, on the eve of Veterans’ Day, the Death Penalty Information Center released a new report, Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. The report exam­ines the plight of U.S. mil­i­tary vet­er­ans who have been sen­tenced to death, esti­mat­ing that about 300 vet­er­ans are cur­rent­ly on death row. Many of these vet­er­ans suf­fer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or oth­er men­tal dis­abil­i­ties caused or exac­er­bat­ed by their time in combat. 

Often when these vet­er­ans were on tri­al fac­ing the death penal­ty, their mil­i­tary ser­vice and relat­ed ill­ness­es were bare­ly pre­sent­ed to the jury. The first per­son exe­cut­ed in 2015, Andrew Brannan, was a dec­o­rat­ed Vietnam vet­er­an with PTSD, who had been grant­ed 100% dis­abil­i­ty by the Veterans Administration. His com­bat trau­ma was large­ly unex­plored at tri­al, and the Georgia Pardons Board denied him clemency. 

DPIC’s press release not­ed: ​“As the coun­try pre­pares to hon­or its mil­i­tary vet­er­ans on November 11, 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 report urges more atten­tion be paid to vet­er­ans fac­ing exe­cu­tion: ​“Early inter­ven­tion, peer assis­tance from vet­er­ans, and involve­ment of vet­er­an offi­cials with pros­e­cu­tors, defense attor­neys, and judges could all be instru­men­tal in steer­ing a case away from the death penal­ty,” the report states.

Robert Dunham, Executive Director of DPIC, com­ment­ed about the report, ​“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. 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.”