War Damaged Vets Should Not Be Executed By the State

Vietnam veterans didn't have the luxury of Veterans Courts and understanding judges more interested in providing real justice than the ruthless abandonment of gratefulness for service. Given the fact many Vietnam veterans, like others before, were drafted into serving, one fact remains constant, they chose to serve instead of run away. Some enlisted willingly and they served side by side taking the same risks, watching over each other with courage and commitment to do their best with the soldiers who were chosen to go. Even now communities around the country are not acknowledging the uniqueness of the men and women serving in the military. Their desire to be of service does not suddenly become obsolete when they come home. It takes a unique individual to be able to put their lives on the line for the sake of strangers in the first place. When you think about the fact they face being deployed for a year or more over and over again, leaving their families and friends, to enter into a strange country for the sake of this country, it should be obvious they are not your average "Joe" and never will be. They do not suddenly change from hero to criminal without reason.

If it is PTSD, they do not and should not get a get out of jail free card but what the Veterans Courts are doing is measuring justice with appreciation for the uniqueness of their lives. It would be a wonderful day if every incarcerated veteran's case were reviewed with what we know now about PTSD so they could be provided with the same kind of justice that service those who serve as well as the citizens.

Purple Hearts On Death Row: War Damaged Vets Should Not Be Executed By the State

By Karl R. Keys and Bill Pelke, AlterNet. Posted December 4, 2009.


Soldiers are coming home traumatized by the carnage they've seen. As veterans, we believe those who commit crimes due to severe mental problems should be treated, not killed.

Mental exhaustion. Battle fatigue. PTSD. Whatever it's called, many of our soldiers who served in wars over the years came home with combat-related mental illness, traumatized by the carnage and destruction they saw and experienced.

Unfortunately, too many veterans' mental conditions have fueled criminal behavior resulting in their imprisonment. Dating back to the Civil War, veteran incarceration rates increased after each conflict.

This is not a small, marginal problem. Government statistics for the 1980s show that 21 percent of state prison inmates then were Vietnam veterans. The U.S. Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration estimate that two of every five of the 800,000 new Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans exhibit post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

The stories of two such veterans illustrate this tragedy. This fall, Vietnam veteran James Floyd Davis was finally presented the awards due to him -- a Purple Heart and a Good Conduct medal -- in a small ceremony held in a hearing room in a North Carolina prison. Davis, now 62, was not permitted to keep his medals after the ceremony.

What wasn't introduced at trial was that Davis, who attained the rank of sergeant in Vietnam, fought on a Central Highlands firebase during the Tet Offensive, where he lost his hearing, was hit with shrapnel, some of which remains in his leg, and went home with depression, paranoid schizophrenia and PTSD. His marriage fell apart, and he attempted suicide. It isn't certain if Davis will be executed, but he has given up his legal appeals. North Carolina's Center for Death Penalty Appeals and one of its attorneys, Ken Rose, continues to advocate for him.

Manny Babbitt, another Vietnam War veteran and a Marine, earned his Purple Heart for courage under fire in the battle of Khe Sanh, where 737 Americans died and more than 2,500 soldiers were wounded. Hit by rocket shrapnel that opened his skull, Babbitt lost consciousness and was thought to be dead. He was loaded onto a pile of corpses by helicopter operators where he regained consciousness surrounded by severed limbs and bodies.

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Purple Hearts On Death Row