New Report Shines Light on Military Veterans Facing the Death Penalty

Key Decision Makers in Justice System Often Ignore Critical Mitigating Evidence Related to Vets’ Service

(Washington, D.C.) 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.

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 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, DPIC’s Senior Program Director and the 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. 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 fre­quent­ly, 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 DPIC. ​“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.”

The report is not offered as the final word on this impor­tant issue, but rather is intend­ed as a wake-up call to gov­ern­ment offi­cials and the pub­lic that some vet­er­ans are being left behind.

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The Death Penalty Information Center is a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion serv­ing the media and the pub­lic with analy­sis and infor­ma­tion on issues con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The Center pro­vides in-depth reports, issues press releas­es, con­ducts brief­in­gs for jour­nal­ists, and serves as a resource to those work­ing on this issue. The Center is fund­ed through the gen­eros­i­ty of indi­vid­ual donors and foun­da­tions, includ­ing the Roderick MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the Atlantic Philanthropies, and the Proteus Action League.