Military Service, PTSD, and the Death Penalty

December 1, 2009 at 10:21 AM

A day before President Obama is to announce plans for escalating troop deployments in Afghanistan, the US Supreme Court issued an important ruling concerning returning veterans overwhelmed by the trauma of combat.

The Court on Monday sent the death penalty case of George Porter back to the state of Florida for re-sentencing, without bothering to hold a hearing.  The 15-page order featured a passionate (by Supreme Court standards) honoring of Porter’s Korean War service and a compassionate recognition of the debilitating effects of the subsequent trauma he suffered.  The Justices ruled that the Porter’s lawyer was constitutionally deficient for failing to provide the jury with information about his Porter’s military service and the severe mental health consequences that followed.
 
A reasonable jury, the Court concluded, would likely recommend a life sentence if confronted with such compelling testimony. 

“The relevance of Porter’s extensive combat experience is not only that he served honorably under extreme hardship and gruesome conditions, but also that the jury might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll that combat took on Porter.”

The Court’s ruling could prove to be quite important; veterans are not unknown on America’s death rows.  Just this November, Virginia put to death two veterans of US military service – John Allen Muhammad, who served in the first Gulf War, and who had severe mental illness claims similar to Porter’s; and Larry Bill Elliott, a former military intelligence officer. 

Military service is also not the only cause of severe post traumatic issues.  But the Court in this case suggested that there is a special significance to military service, and particularly serious combat duty, perhaps seeking to discourage too broad an interpretation of their order. 

Whatever the ultimate impact of this ruling turns out to be, there is no doubt that, as American men and women continue to be sent into combat, some will return having endured terrible trauma, and, sadly, this question will continue to be relevant.

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14 thoughts on “Military Service, PTSD, and the Death Penalty”

  1. I'm glad that George Porter's death sentence was overturned, but I feel sad that Virginia has lived in an age of paranoia by killing Larry Bill Elliot by the electric chair on November 17 in spite of his innocence claims. Yet before he died, he made apologies to the families of murder victims Robert Finch and Dana Thrall and maintained his innocence to the end, exclaiming, “Perhaps God’s purpose for my death is to demonstrate just how fractured our judicial system has become.” My heart breaks for the families of Elliot, Finch and Thrall, and I truly hope Elliot made his peace with God before he died. May Elliot and the victims rest in the justice and peace that had been denied for him on earth. 😥

  2. Bill was innocent and his appeals attorney tried to show that to the Supreme Court (3 of them did listen) and to Gov. Kaine, as well as all of the appeals courts. But most did not pay attention. His appology to the Thrall and Finch families was that he was sorry they lost loved ones, but he was not the one that killed them. And he knew how his loved ones were going to suffer.
    State sanctioned murder is a disgrace to the nation that these men fought to preserve.
    Maybe this was what Bill saw for the future, not just veterans, but all people on death row, when he said "he hoped his death would be a launching pad for the elimination of the death penalty."

  3. I’m glad that George Porter’s death sentence was overturned, but I feel sad that Virginia has lived in an age of paranoia by killing Larry Bill Elliot by the electric chair on November 17 in spite of his innocence claims. Yet before he died, he made apologies to the families of murder victims Robert Finch and Dana Thrall and maintained his innocence to the end, exclaiming, “Perhaps God’s purpose for my death is to demonstrate just how fractured our judicial system has become.” My heart breaks for the families of Elliot, Finch and Thrall, and I truly hope Elliot made his peace with God before he died. May Elliot and the victims rest in the justice and peace that had been denied for him on earth. 😥

  4. Thank you, Pam. This was a touching story. May Larry and the victims truly rest in peace. 🙁

  5. Bill was innocent and his appeals attorney tried to show that to the Supreme Court (3 of them did listen) and to Gov. Kaine, as well as all of the appeals courts. But most did not pay attention. His appology to the Thrall and Finch families was that he was sorry they lost loved ones, but he was not the one that killed them. And he knew how his loved ones were going to suffer.
    State sanctioned murder is a disgrace to the nation that these men fought to preserve.
    Maybe this was what Bill saw for the future, not just veterans, but all people on death row, when he said “he hoped his death would be a launching pad for the elimination of the death penalty.”

  6. Thank you, Pam. This was a touching story. May Larry and the victims truly rest in peace. 🙁

  7. I'm against the death penalty for anyone.

    If PTSD can be used as a mitigating circumstance for Vets why not use it for those who suffer from PTSD due to other circumstances, child abuse for example.

  8. I’m against the death penalty for anyone.

    If PTSD can be used as a mitigating circumstance for Vets why not use it for those who suffer from PTSD due to other circumstances, child abuse for example.

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