PTSD on Trial:Iraq veteran sentenced to state hospital

Jamie Francis, The Oregonian
In Grant County Circuit Court in Canyon City, three miles from the murder scene in John Day, Iraq war veteran Jessie Bratcher (center) and his attorney, Markku Sario (left), listen during sentencing for Bratcher's murder conviction.

Iraq veteran sentenced to state hospital in PTSD murder case
By Julie Sullivan, The Oregonian
December 07, 2009, 10:33PM
CANYON CITY -- One of the first Iraq veterans in the U.S. -- and the first in Oregon -- to successfully claim post-traumatic stress disorder as a defense for murder was sentenced to the Oregon State Hospital on Monday instead of a nationally recognized veterans treatment center.

Judge William D. Cramer Jr. placed Jessie Bratcher, 27, under the supervision of the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board for life. He recommended that the board consider sending the Iraq veteran to a special Los Angeles facility, but not before making its own evaluation.

Bratcher was facing 25 years in prison for the 2008 murder of Jose Ceja Medina when a Grant County jury found him guilty but insane due to PTSD in October. The former Oregon Army National Guard soldier was being treated and compensated for disabilities from his service in Iraq, mostly for PTSD, when he shot an unarmed man during a war flashback.

The case is at the leading edge of courts considering war experience as a mitigating factor. Last week, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that, in death penalty cases involving veterans, lawyers must present evidence of PTSD from military service.

"That was a huge step, coming from the Supreme Court," said National Veterans Foundation President Shad Meshad. "But it's just one step. We're going to have one of these PTSD cases after another, and the question for the military and the Department of Defense is, 'How do we prevent it, and how do we deal with it once it's there?'"
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