Courts likely to see more vets with PTSD

Courts likely to see more vets with PTSD
July 9, 2012
By Gina Passarella
The Legal Intelligencer

When the state Supreme Court denied earlier this year an Iraq War veteran's plea to allow an insanity defense in his Altoona murder trial, Justice Seamus P. McCaffery promised a dissenting statement would follow.

He delivered late last month, with a commentary on how the court should recognize a likely increase in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, coming through the courts, while acknowledging that it's unusual for the court to be asked to weigh in on the appropriateness and legality of a "particular defense to capital murder charges."

"There is ample reason to anticipate that when members of our armed forces return from combat duty and are charged with the commission of criminal offenses, there will be an increased incidence of an accused's seeking to present an insanity defense based upon mental infirmities related to his or her military service," Justice McCaffery said in his five-page dissent in Commonwealth v. Horner.

Justice McCaffery added that there is a growing number of people returning from military service who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental illnesses that are a direct result of their military service, and who commit crimes directly attributable to the "deleterious effects of combat service."
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