Justice will be served today for Deputy Kyle Dinkheller

[Jumper_Dad]

Specialist or not, the fact is, Brannan had no testimony brought forth on his behalf by his defense. How can you not consult the patient's diagnosing psychiatrist when you're calling for the charges to be changed on account the defendant not being mentally fit to stand trial?

False,

Counsel presented testimony from Dr. Robert Storms, a psychologist who had evaluated Brannan at counsel's request.   Dr. Storms testified that Brannan had twelve or fifteen years of medical history comprised of maybe four or five hundred documented pages of past psychiatric disorders, specifically post traumatic stress disorder.

 

Dr. Storms detailed Brannan's military history, which included “set[ting] booby traps and ambushes for the Viet Cong” and the death of one of his commanding officers, which occurred under circumstances for which Brannan felt responsible.   Dr. Storms testified that Brannan had a history of manic depression, otherwise known as bipolar disorder, and that Brannan's post-traumatic stress disorder had led to the dissolution of his marriage, to his inability to work “an established routine,” to his becoming a recluse, to his living in a remote area in a house with military features, to his being declared 100 percent disabled by the Department of Veterans Affairs, to his having intrusive thoughts of Vietnam, to his having flashbacks to Vietnam wherein he had the experience of reliving events from the war, to his having severe anxiety and chronic guilt, to his feeling in danger for no objective reason, and to his being hospitalized.   Dr. Storms concluded that Brannan was not malingering, that he had committed the murder while in a flashback, and that he did not have the mental capacity to distinguish right and wrong during the murder.   Dr. Storms also testified that Brannan was likely in a hypomanic state, a state of arousal just below a manic state, at the time of the murder.

 

Counsel presented testimony from Dr. Avrum Weiss, a psychologist, on the subject of post-traumatic stress disorder.   Dr. Weiss testified about Brannan's past exposure to combat and about how persons who experience a flashback “will actually re-live a piece of [their past] traumatic experience.”   Dr. Weiss testified that he had concluded from his review of the records, from his evaluation of Brannan, from Brannan's statements to the GBI, and from the video recording of the murder that Brannan was in a flashback during the murder.   Dr. Weiss also criticized the report of Dr. Gary Carter, the court-appointed psychiatrist who evaluated Brannan, claiming that Dr. Carter had incorrectly focused on Brannan's conduct after the murder and had ignored signs that Brannan had experienced a flashback during the murder.

 

Pursuant to a joint stipulation, counsel entered Brannan's medical records from the Department of Veterans Affairs and his military records into evidence.

 

His attorney said the reason that the VA Psychiatrist wasn't called was because they felt he was more concerned with protecting the VA than his client and that there was nothing that he would testify to that hadn't already been testified to by other Doctors that were called to testify.

[Jumper_Dad]

There's an argument that it costs more to execute one.

 

It only cost more due to higher cost of solitary cells, court cost for appeals and length of dragging it all out.

[halfback20]

I apologize if I can't find sympathy for a man who murdered a police officer because "he let me". I can't. I'm glad he's being removed from this earth.

[LIPTON BASH]

I understand both sides of the argument. When I was younger I was 100% pro death penalty. As I've grown older I've become conflicted.

 

Anytime you shoot a cop who serves this country my reaction is punish them harshly. But it becomes tricky when the other party involved served our country overseas and became mentally ill due to that service.

 

I feel horrible for the family and I understand their need for justice. I would never judge another human or family on that need.

[BigVMan23]

I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet a paycheck that this video is included in thousands of training classes every year to law enforcement officers on what to do and how to react when found in similar circumstances. That video is horrible, but I hope it has helped save officers lives since the occurrence.

 

It's very clear Officer Dinkheller did not want to shoot this man...which is commendable and I would say is the predominant feeling of most officers, almost none want to find themselves in this kind of situation. However, it's also very clear that Officer Dinkheller should have shot this guy at any time during at least three occasions. The assailant charged him at least twice, then walked back to his truck, searching for his gun and turned around and looked back at least once before he got it out and started to fire. I wish to God Officer Dinkheller would have shot this guy early on in the confrontation, and it's exactly what the guy should have gotten even without the benefit of hindsight and knowing what the ultimate outcome was.

 

People who are quick to call police officers "murderers" should be forced to sit and watch the DOZENS of videos that are out there like this. Maybe then many of them will see the situations police officers find themselves in and understand why they in many cases have to react the way they do.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

I don't know this for a fact, but I would bet a paycheck that this video is included in thousands of training classes every year to law enforcement officers on what to do and how to react when found in similar circumstances. That video is horrible, but I hope it has helped save officers lives since the occurrence.

 

It's very clear Officer Dinkheller did not want to shoot this man...which is commendable and I would say is the predominant feeling of most officers, almost none want to find themselves in this kind of situation. However, it's also very clear that Officer Dinkheller should have shot this guy at any time during at least three occasions. The assailant charged him at least twice, then walked back to his truck, searching for his gun and turned around and looked back at least once before he got it out and started to fire. I wish to God Officer Dinkheller would have shot this guy early on in the confrontation, and it's exactly what the guy should have gotten even without the benefit of hindsight and knowing what the ultimate outcome was.

 

People who are quick to call police officers "murderers" should be forced to sit and watch the DOZENS of videos that are out there like this. Maybe then many of them will see the situations police officers find themselves in and understand why they in many cases have to react the way they do.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Officer Dinkheller actually fired first after taking cover behind his door and repeatedly ordering Brannan to put down the M1. I know for sure that in the course of the initial exchange of fire, Officer Dinkheller emptied his gun without striking Brannan and had to reload his gun...which gave Brannan the opportunity to fire on him openly.

[Hellbird]

I hope he fries in Hell

[UKMustangFan]

I'm with CWB.

 

Horrifically tragic and can't imagine what the Officer's family has went through these past 17 years.

 

I agree that there are some who don't belong on this planet.

 

I simply morally don't believe we have the right to take a life.

[Omega Man]

I hope he fries in Hell

 

I'll supply the match!

So sad for the family.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Evidently he has been found over and over competent. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to be executed. He took the life of a police officer in cold blood. He deserves to be executed.

 

To house an inmate in Georgia per year is $21,039 per inmate. Over 17 years that is $357,663. That is a waste of money. Why waste that much again or more to continue to house this murderer?

 

"Deserve" is an interesting word to use. Where does "deserve" come from? If Brannan had killed Officer Dinkheller in Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wisconsin, he would not have "deserved" the death penalty. He would have, instead, "deserved" life imprisonment. There are another 101 countries in the world where he would have only "deserved" life imprisonment...and only 94 where he could have potentially "deserved" the death penalty (and 47 of those countries, although they still have capital punishment 'on the books', do not exercise the practice any longer).

 

As for your numbers on housing inmates in Georgia, I would be willing to bet that number is reflective of the cost to house an inmate in general population, versus the cost of housing a death row inmate, which is widely accepted to cost at least twice that of general population inmates. So, double your number, and you've got $715,326 for 17 years of death row imprisonment (figuring conservatively)...then add the national average of 1,902 days in the court system that a death penalty case takes at an average of $1.26 million in court costs (versus an average of 148 for life imprisonment with $740,000 in court costs). Doing the math on that, it took at least $1,975,326 in state funds for Georgia to put Andrew Brannan to death yesterday.

 

Now if you subtract the court costs for a life imprisonment case back out of that figure and divide that by your $21,039 number, then you could say with relative accuracy that the state of Georgia could have housed Brannan in general prison population for 58.7 years at the same price. There you have it. On average, putting someone to death costs more than imprisoning them for life.

[halfback20]

 

"Deserve" is an interesting word to use. Where does "deserve" come from? If Brannan had killed Officer Dinkheller in Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, or Wisconsin, he would not have "deserved" the death penalty. He would have, instead, "deserved" life imprisonment. There are another 101 countries in the world where he would have only "deserved" life imprisonment...and only 94 where he could have potentially "deserved" the death penalty (and 47 of those countries, although they still have capital punishment 'on the books', do not exercise the practice any longer).

 

As for your numbers on housing inmates in Georgia, I would be willing to bet that number is reflective of the cost to house an inmate in general population, versus the cost of housing a death row inmate, which is widely accepted to cost at least twice that of general population inmates. So, double your number, and you've got $715,326 for 17 years of death row imprisonment (figuring conservatively)...then add the national average of 1,902 days in the court system that a death penalty case takes at an average of $1.26 million in court costs (versus an average of 148 for life imprisonment with $740,000 in court costs). Doing the math on that, it took at least $1,975,326 in state funds for Georgia to put Andrew Brannan to death yesterday.

 

Now if you subtract the court costs for a life imprisonment case back out of that figure and divide that by your $21,039 number, then you could say with relative accuracy that the state of Georgia could have housed Brannan in general prison population for 58.7 years at the same price. There you have it. On average, putting someone to death costs more than imprisoning them for life.

 

I think the word deserve was his opinion.

 

I agree with his opinion. He deserved to die. I'm not happy a human being was executed yesterday. I am happy the Deputy's family can have some closure.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

What real good comes from executing someone?

 

First and foremost, capital punishment costs the country more money than keeping a convicted murderer alive in prison for life.

 

"

If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

"

 

Secondly, this idea of "justice", in the case of capital punishment, is little more than fulfilling a law that was written some 200 years ago (when enslaving another human being was also considered TOTALLY cool). It has been shown time and time again that the death penalty has virtually no relationship to the prevention of murder in the United States - in fact, the national murder rate showed a steady climb in the 15 years immediately following the USSC's decision to remove their five year suspension of capital punishment in 1976. Instead, capital punishment just drags the judicial process out, costs a ton of money, and continually brings the same painful issues up over and over again for the loved ones to cope with rather than allowing them to begin the healing process. Also worth noting...check out the "good company" that we are in here in the US as one of the minority of countries in the world that practices capital punishment (hint: there aren't many 'world leaders'...or even many modern civilized countries on the list): The Death Penalty Worldwide

 

"Justice", at its heart, is the idea of being fair and even-handed. If nothing else, we have proven time and time again that our judicial system is not "even-handed". Our judicial system isn't being "even-handed" when Larry Mahoney walks out of jail a free man 10 years and 11 months after begin found guilty of killing 27 people, including teenagers, in a drunk driving crash...yet Brannan, a man who was proven to be mentally ill, is put to death for killing a single police officer. Our judicial system isn't providing "justice" when they have findings like THIS. That linked article may not apply specifically to the Brannan case...but still, we have an incredibly flawed judicial system, and to hand it the responsibility of something as absolutely monumental as deciding whether or not a person should live (a right which I don't believe we, as human beings, should have to decide)....well, I think that's a pretty crazy idea.

 

"

Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult.

"

 

Lastly, I understand that the family and friends of someone who is murdered is obviously going through some indescribable anguish...but what good does killing the person who killed their loved one do? Closure? How is life imprisonment not closure? There are also many many documented cases of murder victims' families attesting to the fact that the murderer's execution did NOT bring about any closure or help in the healing process. HERE are a handful of examples.

 

"

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away His anger from him.

"

[BigVMan23]

Well, it could be argued he deserved to die during the shootout with the officer...why shouldn't he now?

[BigVMan23]

If I'm not mistaken, Officer Dinkheller actually fired first after taking cover behind his door and repeatedly ordering Brannan to put down the M1. I know for sure that in the course of the initial exchange of fire, Officer Dinkheller emptied his gun without striking Brannan and had to reload his gun...which gave Brannan the opportunity to fire on him openly.

 

That could have been the case, I really couldn't quite tell from watching the video just once. I guess my point was that in at least three points during that confrontation, before the gun was pulled from the truck, the office had every right to shoot the guy, and unfortunately history tells us he should have.

[Colonels_Wear_Blue]

Well, it could be argued he deserved to die during the shootout with the officer...why shouldn't he now?

 

If person A rapes person B, does the court system then let person B rape person A back?

 

Or more accurately: If person X picks a fight with person Y, then person Y is legally justified to punch them back in their own defense. Lets say person X breaks the jaw of person Y in that fight, is arrested for assault, and goes before a judge on the charges. Will the legal system then say, "Alright person Y...we're going to have a court appointed strong-man punch person X and break his jaw, and then everything will be even, justice will be served, and you and your family will have your closure."?