Should Veterans on Death Row Get Special Treatment

In 2009, wounded war veteran J. Davis received a Purple Heart four decades after fighting in Vietnam. He received his medal. However, the trophy was removed, and his shackles were replaced.  A guard then escorted Davis back to his death row cell. The fateful day he occurred in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1995. Mr. Davis’ employment was terminated earlier in the week. He returned to the facility.  Davis then walked into the tool company and opened fire. He killed three people, including two of his former bosses. Davis had a mental illness.  He also had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and was a victim of child abuse. However, the issues concerning child abuse, mental illness, and PTSD were not discussed promptly. The Defense attorney did not discuss the problems until late in the trial.  Advocates argue this was a misstep that led to the veteran’s death sentence.

Veterans on Death Row

The Death Penalty Information Center published a report on November 10. The report titled "Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty" discussed the results of a recent research study.  The researchers discovered hundreds of former service members were sentenced to death.  Many of the former service members had PTSD.  The very government they risked their lives to protect convicted them.  Davis included. Richard Dieter is the center’s senior program director and report author.  Dieter believes the government should not be taking the lives of people who spent part of theirs serving the government.  Especially service members mentally wounded in the process. Author Dieter contends their prior service and injuries exclude them from being treated as the “worst of the worst.”  He argues their service is a mitigating factor, just as a person’s age or disability may spare them the death penalty. As our nation honors military veterans on November 11, Dieter and many military criminal defense attorneys hope that his report will serve as a “wake-up call” for the American people and our criminal justice system, warning them that by imposing the death penalty on a small but significant population of veterans, we have failed them. The number of veterans on death row is unclear.  However, the report estimates that 10% or more US death row inmates served in the military.  Many of the former service members incarcerated have PTSD.

Military Service as a Mitigating Factor

Dieter wrote that our country owes its veterans a thorough examination of the death penalty, even in the worst cases. Decades of studies on former servicemen and women have established a close connection between combat experience in war zones and increasing rates of domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, unemployment, homelessness, and criminality. We agree with the report’s suggestion that military criminal defense lawyers should present a person’s service as a mitigating factor.  They are additionally drawing a connection between PTSD, combat trauma, and the violence that stems from mental illness. Unfortunately, prosecutors, judges, jurors, and lawmakers have yet to understand our troops’ conditions fully. Therefore, their defense attorneys must understand. Contact Crisp & Associates, LLC if you have been charged with a military crime anywhere.