Notables from Out-n-About 03/17/2010 (p.m.)

• Research paper on returning veterans.

  "There are about 1 million veterans of the two current wars in the Veterans Affairs system so far, said Jim McGuire, a health care administrator at the agency. He cited statistics suggesting that 27 percent of active-duty veterans returning to civilian life âwere at risk for mental health problemsâ including post-traumatic stress syndrome.

  Judges have recognized that many of those returning from war are carrying a heavy burden of damage that might not be physically visible. As one federal district judge in Denver, John L. Kane, wrote in an order giving a defendant probation instead of a prison sentence, the soldier âreturned from the war, but never really came home.â "

  tags: PTSD, law, crime, blog

• Defendants Fresh From War Find Service Counts in Court - NYTimes.com

  tags: no_tag

  • âMore and more courts are noticing and asserting, in a variety of ways, that there seems to be some relevance to military service, or history of wartime service, to our country,â said Douglas A. Berman, a law professor at Ohio State University and an expert on sentencing.

    At the federal level, judges are bucking guidelines that focus more on the nature of the crime than on the qualities of the person who committed it. States, too, are forming special courts to ensure that veterans in court receive the treatment their service entitles them to.

  • There are about 1 million veterans of the two current wars in the Veterans Affairs system so far, said Jim McGuire, a health care administrator at the agency. He cited statistics suggesting that 27 percent of active-duty veterans returning to civilian life âwere at risk for mental health problemsâ including post-traumatic stress syndrome.

    Judges have recognized that many of those returning from war are carrying a heavy burden of damage that might not be physically visible. As one federal district judge in Denver, John L. Kane, wrote in an order giving a defendant probation instead of a prison

  • The judgesâ decisions are part of a broader fight over sentencing, and over once-rigid federal guidelines that tend to punish the crime while giving little weight to the specific circumstances of the defendant. The guidelines explicitly state that âgood worksâ like military service âare not ordinarily relevantâ in determining whether to give sentences below the recommended range.

  • The Supreme Court, however, in a series of cases, has declared that the federal sentencing guidelines are advisory, not mandatory. The United States Sentencing Commission is considering proposals that would allow military service or other evidence of âprior good worksâ to be considered as mitigating factors in sentencing decisions.

    The Supreme Court seemed to signal greater consideration for military service in a decision in November throwing out the death penalty for a Korean War veteran who was convicted in 1987 of murdering his former girlfriend and her boyfriend. Calling for a new sentencing hearing, the justices wrote that lawyers for the defendant, George Porter Jr., should have presented evidence of âthe intense stress and emotional toll that combat tookâ on Mr. Porter, who suffered from âdreadful nightmares and would attempt to climb his bedroom walls with knives at night.â

  • Mr. Oldani spoke with what clinicians call flat affect â an absence of emotion or change in tone â and to Mr. Capece, it seemed clear that âthis kid was really messed up by his experiences out there.â

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