Entries tagged with “Veterans”
Nov 19, 2025
17th Scheduled Execution of 2025 in Florida Raises Concerns Over Non-Unanimous Verdicts and Execution of Veterans
Richard “Malik” Randolph is scheduled to be executed on November 20, 2025, for the 1988 murder of Minnie Ruth McCollum. If carried out, Mr. Randolph’s execution will mark Florida’s 17th execution of the year — more than double the previous record of eight executions in one year, and the seventh execution of a military veteran by the state in 2025. According to his lawyers, Mr. Randolph’s childhood was marked by profound trauma: adopted at five months old, he endured physical and psychological…
Nov 10, 2025
New DPI Report Reveals Military Veterans are Overrepresented on Death Row and Juries Often Do Not Hear Critical Evidence of Military Service
As the United States prepares to observe Veterans Day 2025, the Death Penalty Information Center today released a new comprehensive report: Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty. The report reveals that approximately 200 military veterans await execution on death rows across the U.S., and one in seven executions since 1972 has been a military veteran. Many of the juries that sentenced these men and women to death never heard about their military service…
Nov 04, 2025
Veterans in the Spotlight: In Service and in Struggle — The Story of One Veteran on Death Row
On Veterans Day, the Death Penalty Information Center will release a new report about veterans and the death penalty, exploring the lasting effects of military service and explaining why military experiences matter when veterans interact with the legal system. This article tells the story of Navy veteran David Hosier who was sentenced to death without a jury ever learning about his mental health struggles, honorable military service, and childhood tragedy. David Hosier’s life was shaped by his…
Oct 28, 2025
Veterans in the Spotlight: The Unravelling of the Lives of Two Vietnam Veterans
On Veterans Day, the Death Penalty Information Center will release a new report about veterans and the death penalty, exploring the lasting effects of military service and explaining why military experiences matter when veterans interact with the legal system. This article takes a moment to reflect on* *Battle Scars* *— DPI’s first pathbreaking report about veterans and the death penalty released a decade ago — and two of the powerful individual stories of…
Oct 22, 2025
Veterans in the Spotlight: One Man’s Struggle with Vietnam-Induced PTSD
On Veterans Day, the Death Penalty Information Center will release a new report about veterans and the death penalty, exploring the lasting effects of military service and explaining why military experiences matter when veterans interact with the legal system. This article shares the story of one death-sentenced veteran, Frederick Mendoza. Frederick Mendoza enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1967 as a basic rifleman and served over 18 months in Vietnam. He was on the front lines of some of the…
Apr 29, 2025
Florida Court Refuses to Stop Execution for Mentally Ill Veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson
Jeffrey Hutchinson is scheduled to be executed in Florida on May 1, 2025, despite a longstanding mental illness and his attorney’s claim that he is mentally incompetent. On April 24, 2025, attorneys for the Gulf War veteran filed a motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seeking a stay of his scheduled execution and requesting an evidentiary hearing to assess their client’s competency. Mr. Hutchinson has suffered from a delusional disorder for decades, with a persistent delusion that his…
Executions
Religion
,Mar 24, 2025
Four Executions in Three Days Spotlight Constitutional Concerns About Death Penalty
In a three-day span from March 18 to March 20, four men were executed in four different states. Two of the men put to death, in Louisiana and Arizona, were the first executed in their state in years. While the close timing of the executions resulted from independent state-level decisions and individualized legal developments rather than any coordinated national effort, all four executions raised serious constitutional concerns. March 18: Jessie Hoffman (LA) On March 18, Louisiana executed…
State & Federal Info
Military
,Nov 10, 2023
A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes
In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought worldwide attention to the issue of military veterans on death row. DPIC found approximately 300 veterans incarcerated under a sentence of death, representing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been executed. Since that report, research and understanding about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), substance use disorders, and mental illness among veterans has only grown. A 2023 survey of members of the…
Issues
Mar 01, 2022
New Poll Finds Bipartisan Opposition to Use of the Death Penalty as It is Actually Administered
A new national poll has found that bipartisan majorities of Americans oppose seeking the death penalty against vulnerable groups of defendants who historically have been disproportionately subjected to its use. The poll, conducted by the Justice Research Group (JRG) November 3 to 5, 2021 and released February 17, 2022, found that Democrats, Republicans, and Independents by margins of more than 30 percentage points opposed the use of the death penalty against people with severe mental illness…
Issues
Feb 21, 2022
56 Prosecutors Issue Joint Statement Calling for End of ‘Broken’ Death Penalty
Calling capital punishment in the U.S. “broken,” 56 elected prosecutors from across the country have issued a joint statement urging systemic changes to end the death penalty nationwide. As an initial step, the prosecutors pledged to not seek the death penalty “against people with intellectual disabilities, post-traumatic stress disorder, histories of traumatic brain injury, or other intellectual or cognitive challenges that diminish their ability to fully understand and regulate their own…
Issues
Feb 03, 2022
New Poll: Voters Overwhelmingly Oppose Las Vegas DA Seeking the Death Penalty Against Vulnerable and Impaired Persons
Likely voters in Clark County, Nevada overwhelmingly oppose the use of capital punishment against broad categories of vulnerable and impaired persons whom county prosecutors have been trying to execute, a new poll released by Vegas Watch on January 27, 2022 shows. The poll, conducted by the Justice Research Group from December 1 to 13, 2021, found a significant disconnect between voters’ views on capital punishment and the practices of Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson (pictured).
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jun 30, 2021
Texas Executes John Hummel, Former Marine with Service-Related Trauma Whose Trial Lawyer Now Works for Prosecutor Who is Trying to Execute Him
Texas executed John Hummel on June 30, 2021, an honorably discharged former Marine with service-related trauma whose trial lawyer now works for the prosecutor who was trying to execute him. Hummel had come within two days of execution in March 2020, when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay because of health concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2021, Hummel’s lawyer, Michael Mowla, indicated that no appeals would be filed to try to halt the execution. Hummel was…
Issues
Nov 06, 2020
Webinar Series Highlights Issues Faced by Veterans Facing the Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center is partnering with the Veteran Advocacy Project to present a six-part webinar series on Veterans and the Death Penalty. The webinars, which are co-sponsored by Advancing Real Change, Inc. and Witness to Innocence, will address a broad range of serious issues that have made veterans disproportionately vulnerable to capital prosecution. The series opens Monday, November 9, the week the nation commemorates Veterans Day 2020, with a session on Veterans on Death…
Issues
Executions Overview
,Jun 06, 2020
Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of June 1, 2020
NEWS (6/5/20) — North Carolina: The North Carolina Supreme Court has struck down the state legislature’s attempted retroactive repeal of the state’s Racial Justice Act, restoring the rights of approximately 130 death-row prisoners to seek redress of death sentences that they had claimed were substantially affected by racial bias. The Court issued its 6 – 1 rulings in the cases of death-row prisoners Andrew Ramseur (pictured, left) and Rayford Burke (pictured, right), holding that “the…
Executions
Upcoming Executions
,Mar 17, 2020
Texas Court Issues 60-Day Stay of Execution for John Hummel in Response to Coronavirus Crisis
Responding to escalating health concerns caused by the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has temporarily halted the execution of John Hummel. In an order issued on March 16, 2020, the TCCA stayed Hummel’s execution, which had been scheduled for March 18, for 60 days, saying the delay was necessary “in light of the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency.” Hummel’s attorney had asked for the stay, arguing that the…
Issues
Feb 05, 2020
News Brief — Texas Appeals Court Upholds Conviction and Death Sentence of Veteran With PTSD
NEWS (2/5/20): The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the conviction and death sentence of Marine Corps veteran John Thuesen, who sustained combat-related PTSD from his service in the war in Iraq. In an unsigned, unpublished opinion on February 5, the appeals court adopted all but a handful of the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, which had rejected Thuesen’s claim that his trial lawyer had been ineffective in failing to investigate and present available evidence of the…
Issues
Upcoming Executions
,Military
,Oct 11, 2019
100th Execution or 30th Exoneration? Florida Sets Execution Date for 73-Year-Old Military Veteran Who May Be Innocent
Florida has scheduled the execution of 73-year-old James Dailey (pictured) for November 7, 2019, despite substantial evidence that he had no involvement in the killing, including a statement by the admitted killer, Daley’s co-defendant, that he had acted alone. Dailey stands to be either the 100 death-row prisoner put to death by Florida since executions resumed in the 1970s or the state’s 30th death-row exoneree. Dailey was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1985 killing of 14-year-old…
Issues
Military
,May 23, 2019
Florida Executes Mentally Ill Vietnam Veteran Diagnosed with “Traumatic Brain Disease”
Florida has executed Bobby Joe Long (pictured), a mentally ill Vietnam veteran with service-related traumatic brain injuries, after the U.S. Supreme Court on May 23, 2019 declined to review his case. Long had asked the Court to halt his execution to address “[w]hether an individual who suffers from severe mental illness is exempt from execution under the Eighth Amendment. In 1980, Long received a diagnosis of “Traumatic Brain Disease” from the Veterans Administration as a result of injuries…
Issues
Military
,Nov 12, 2018
A Veterans Day Review: Recent Cases Highlight Concerns About Veterans and the Death Penalty
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…
Issues
Military
,Aug 07, 2018
Two Servicemen Suffering From Brain Trauma, PTSD Win Death-Penalty Relief
Two servicemen — one a former airman on the U.S. military death row, another a decorated Vietnam veteran sentenced to death in Pennsylvania — have won relief from their capital convictions or death sentences. On August 1, 2018, the La Crosse Tribune reported that an Air Force court martial jury had imposed a life sentence on senior airman Andrew Witt (pictured, left) following a three-week capital resentencing trial. The verdict in Witt’s case came two years after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the…
Issues
New Voices
,Jan 05, 2018
Retired Lt. General: Exclude Mentally Ill Vets from the Death Penalty
Saying that the death penalty should “be reserved for the ‘worst of the worst in our society,’” retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General John Castellaw (pictured) has urged the Tennessee state legislature to adopt pending legislation that would bar the death penalty for people with severe mental illnesses. In an op-ed in the Memphis newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, General Castellaw writes that the death penalty “should not be prescribed for those with severe mental illnesses, including those…
Nov 10, 2015
Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty
In many respects, veterans in the United States are again receiving the respect and gratitude they deserve for having risked their lives and served their country. Wounded soldiers are welcomed home, and their courage in starting a new and difficult journey in civilian life is rightly applauded. But some veterans with debilitating scars from their time in combat have received a very different reception. They have been judged to be the “worst of the worst” criminals, deprived of mercy, sentenced…