That is a pretty crazy statistic. Buzzfeed wrote an article about what leads to this. tl;dr Many vets return with PTSD and defense lawyers and the justice system don't really know how to deal effectively with that issue when there's a capital offense.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnash...is-of-war-veterans-with-ptsd-facin#.asPMbMM04
One of the inmates they reference specifically is Courtney Lockhart, who killed an Auburn student.
"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. Lockhart witnessed the death of many of the 64 members of his brigade who died in Iraq, NPR reported in 2014. At least 12 soldiers from the brigade had been arrested for murder or attempted murder."
That number seems really high, though it is my understanding a brigade can have as many as 4000 soldiers, so maybe 0.3% isn't really all that high of a number.
Anyway, the article wasn't about Lockhart, but it does mention him so I thought I would throw that in instead of just linking. But it is an interesting topic.
Edit: This may need to go to whatever-the-PoRe is now called. Mods can move as they feel necessary.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnash...is-of-war-veterans-with-ptsd-facin#.asPMbMM04
One of the inmates they reference specifically is Courtney Lockhart, who killed an Auburn student.
"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. Lockhart witnessed the death of many of the 64 members of his brigade who died in Iraq, NPR reported in 2014. At least 12 soldiers from the brigade had been arrested for murder or attempted murder."
That number seems really high, though it is my understanding a brigade can have as many as 4000 soldiers, so maybe 0.3% isn't really all that high of a number.
Anyway, the article wasn't about Lockhart, but it does mention him so I thought I would throw that in instead of just linking. But it is an interesting topic.
Edit: This may need to go to whatever-the-PoRe is now called. Mods can move as they feel necessary.
