Entries tagged with “John Thuesen

State & Federal Info

Military

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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…

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Representation

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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…