US Veterans Comprise 10% of Death Row Inmates, Report Finds

Vets make up 7 percent of the USA population, with the roughly 300 that have been sentenced to die comprising 10 percent of the inmates on death row, according to the study.

The report arrived as the country’s use of the death penalty is simultaneously declining and facing increased scrutiny, something that has been argued before the US Supreme Court and on the presidential campaign trail this year.

The center’s report highlighted the case of Louis Jones Jr., a decorated soldier from the Persian Gulf War and Grenada, who was put to death in 2003 after President George W. Bush refused to commute his sentence on allegations he suffered from PTSD after parachuting under enemy fire.

A hearing was held in Frankfort Kentucky of the Kentucky Assembly Interim Joint Committee on Veterans, Military Affairs and Public Protection, focusing on Veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Brynn Anderson / AP, file After the jury heard testimony from those close to Lockhart about the problems he experienced after his military service, the panel voted 12-0 to spare his life, but the judge overruled them, saying they didn’t know about other robberies he had committed.

Joe D’Ambrosio was in the process of re-enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1988 when he was arrested and wrongfully convicted of murder in OH, joining many other veterans on death row. Five states, starting with California and Minnesota, have enacted legislation requiring that a veteran’s service and resulting psychological injuries be taken into account at sentencing. PTSD can be treated, but in one study only about half of the veterans who needed treatment received it. Those conditions are made worse by a high amount of post-traumatic stress that afflicts servicemen and women.

In 2015, the Supreme Court denied a petition to stop the execution of an Iraq war vet, Courtney Lockhart, who suffered from PTSD after serving 16 months in Ramadi, one of Iraq’s deadliest regions.

“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 Dieter.

“And that responsibility extends to ensuring that legislative safeguards are in place in the event these people enter into the criminal justice system”.

The report suggested interim steps to ensure that the mental stability of the person on trial be examined whenever capital charges are brought against a military veteran. Another is that defense teams undergo mandatory training by military experts in cases involving veterans. Additionally, testimony about military culture should be allowed as mitigating evidence in capital trials involving veterans, and potential jurors should be questioned about their views about the military.

Dieter emphasized the need to consider a veteran’s military background, and possible traumas that military service could have left in them, before considering death penalty as an option. That means veterans represent about 10 percent of all inmates sentenced to capital punishment. This lack of preoccupation for such potential extenuating circumstances is also shared by judges, governors, prosecutors and jury panels.