{"id":1309,"date":"2011-09-24T21:00:30","date_gmt":"2011-09-25T03:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/?p=1309"},"modified":"2011-09-24T21:00:30","modified_gmt":"2011-09-25T03:00:30","slug":"tbi-ptsd-become-defenses-for-veterans-facing-criminal-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/tbi-ptsd-become-defenses-for-veterans-facing-criminal-charges.html","title":{"rendered":"TBI, PTSD Become Defenses For Veterans Facing Criminal Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are increasingly using post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and brain injury as a defense\u00a0in criminal trials.\u00a0And that strategy has<\/a>\u00a0prompted a debate in legal circles, as to whether that defense is legitimate, or an insult to vets who weather PTSD and brain injury without committing criminal acts.<\/p>\r\n

There are two recent cases where the PTSD\u00a0defense has been used and drawn media attention.\u00a0In one of the cases, Joshua Stepp, 28, a former Army soldier who was in combat in\u00a0Iraq, was charged with first-degree murder in the death of his 10-month-old stepdaughter in North Carolina. The Los Angeles Times wrote about the case in detail earlier this month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/nationworld\/nation\/la-na-ptsd-20110915,0,5747778,full.story<\/a><\/p>\r\n

The charges were gruesome.\u00a0Stepp was accused of banging his\u00a0infant stepdaughter’s\u00a0head on a carpeted floor, putting toilet paper down her throat and sexually molesting her in November 2009.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Stepp’s defense attorney argued that because of PTSD, Stepp could not have premeditated the killing, as is required in first-degree murder, which\u00a0potentially carries the\u00a0death penalty, according to The Times.\u00a0The lawyer\u00a0asked the jury to convict Stepp of second-degree murder, which is not a capital-punishment crime.<\/p>\r\n

Stepp testified that he didn’t remember much about\u00a0 the night of the killing, and that the\u00a0slaying\u00a0 “just like happened.” Stepp also talked about his duty in Iraq, which included seeing his fellow soldiers being blown up and once having to put body parts in a pizza box.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

The PTSD defense didn’t work.\u00a0On Sept. 8 a jury convicted Stepp of first-degree murder and sexual assault. But the panel deadlocked on whether to impose the death penalty,\u00a0and the judge\u00a0sent Stepp to prison for life with no parole.<\/p>\r\n

The second PTSD-defense\u00a0case is in Tampa, Fla., where ex-Marine captain\u00a0Scott Sciple \u00a0is charged with\u00a0DUI\u00a0manslaughter, according to the Associated Press. In April 2010 Sciple\u00a0was driving down an interstate the wrong way when he hit another car head-on and killed its driver. He is awaiting trial on the charges.<\/p>\r\n

http:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/wireStory\/marine-claims-brain-trauma-led-fatal-dui-crash-14592033<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Sciple had a hero’s background, receiving three Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in Afghanistan and Iraq.\u00a0But in\u00a0combat he was physically and mentally wounded, his\u00a0lawyers contended.\u00a0Sciple had sustained traumatic brain injury and once almost died from blood loss.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Sciple’s lawyer is mounting an insanity\u00a0defense, arguing that because of his TBI and PTSD, Stiple\u00a0blacked out the night of the fatal accident.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

According to AP, the wife of the victim,\u00a0Pedro Rivera, is holding the military at least partially to blame for her husband’s death, maintaining that it should have given Sciple help for his PTSD. And as AP noted,\u00a0“remarkably,” in a 860-page report on the case the Marine Corps\u00a0agreed that veterans need more help.<\/p>\r\n

In a letter regarding that investigation,\u00a0AP reported, one Marine investigator wrote, “It is folly to expect a wounded mind to diagnose\u00a0itself, yet our Marines still depend on an anemic system of self-diagnosis and self-reporting.”<\/p>\r\n

The Los Angeles Times, based on Joshua Stepp’s trial,\u00a0wrote an editorial Thurday headlined “Perils\u00a0 of the PTSD Defense.” In a nutshell, The Times came down on this defense.<\/p>\r\n

http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/opinion\/opinionla\/la-ed-ptsd-20110923,0,5722414.story<\/a><\/p>\r\n

“Like other defendants, veterans deserve to have mitigating factors taken into account by the criminal justice system,” the newspaper wrote. “But there is the danger\u00a0that post-traumatic stress disorder will become a talisman for leniency where none is justified\u00a0— and a synonym\u00a0for criminal tendencies. That would be unfair to other defendants and demeaning to the military.”<\/p>\r\n

I’d agree\u00a0that\u00a0TBI and PTSD\u00a0shouldn’t be used with reckless abandon as a defense. They both\u00a0can have a devastatingly negative impact on behavior, and that fact should never be dismissed or downplayed, especially when talking about combat vets.\u00a0\u00a0Each criminal act\u00a0has to be looked at on a case-by-case\u00a0basis.\u00a0But the impact of TBI and PTSD should never be underestimated.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are increasingly using post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and brain injury as a defense\u00a0in criminal trials.\u00a0And that strategy has\u00a0prompted a debate in legal circles, as to whether that defense is legitimate, or an insult to vets who weather PTSD and brain injury without committing criminal acts. There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[786,783,718,784,787,785],"class_list":["post-1309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-joshua-stepp","tag-military-and-ptsd","tag-military-and-tbi","tag-ptsd-as-a-criminal-defense","tag-scott-siple","tag-tbi-as-a-criminal-defense"],"yoast_head":"\nTBI, PTSD Become Defenses For Veterans Facing Criminal Charges - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/waiting.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/tbi-ptsd-become-defenses-for-veterans-facing-criminal-charges.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TBI, PTSD Become Defenses For Veterans Facing Criminal Charges - Brain Injury Lawyer Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are increasingly using post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and brain injury as a defense\u00a0in criminal trials.\u00a0And that strategy has\u00a0prompted a debate in legal circles, as to whether that defense is legitimate, or an insult to vets who weather PTSD and brain injury without committing criminal acts. 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