His lawyers say his life should be spared because of his mental illness.
Andrew Brannan
AP Photo/Georgia Department of Corrections
Georgia is scheduled to execute Andrew Brannan, a mentally ill Vietnam war veteran, at 7 p.m. on Tuesday for killing a 22-year-old sheriff's deputy during a traffic stop in 1998, an incident that was captured on camera.
The Georgia Board of Pardons and Parole denied clemency to Brannan Monday night.
His lawyers have argued that Brannan, 66, received ineffective counsel during the sentencing phase of his trial because they failed to offer enough evidence to the jury about his mental illness, including testimony from soldiers who served with him and his VA psychiatrist.
While there is no doubt that Brannan committed the murder, his death sentence should be commuted to life without parole because he suffers from mental illness traced to his military service in Vietnam, his lawyers said in the clemency petition filed on Jan. 7.
"We're now the state of (Georgia) in the year 2015," Joe Loveland, one of Brannan's attorneys, told WXIA-TV. "We have to ask ourselves the question, as a society does it make sense to execute, to kill, a decorated veteran who was unquestionably seriously damaged by his experience in the war. Does that make sense?"
Screen grab of Brannan shooting Kyle Dinkheller taken from a dashboard camera.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1z7ZX9b
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