I’m fine with the execution proceeding.
Back story if anyone interested.
The Georgia Supreme Court has reinstated the death penalty for Andrew Howard Brannan, who was convicted of killing Laurens County deputy Kyle Dinkheller.
In a unanimous decision written by Justice Hugh Thompson, the high court reversed a Butts County judge’s ruling that threw out Brannan’s death sentence, although it is not clear whether that judge also vacated Brannan’s conviction.
The jury found Brannan guilty of murder, but after a later hearing the court threw out Brannan’s death sentence. Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Brannan. “For the reasons set below, we reinstate Brannan’s death sentence and, to the extent that it is necessary to do so, we also reinstate his conviction,” Monday’s opinion says.
In January 1998, Dinkheller stopped Brannan on Interstate 16 after clocking him at 98 mph. A video-camera on the deputy’s car showed that Brannan got out of his truck, and Dinkheller demanded he take his hands from his pockets and approach him, but Brannan didn’t move. In the videotape shown to the jury, Brannan then began swearing, dancing in the street and yelling, “Shoot me.” He rushed the deputy, they scuffled and Brannan ran back to his truck while Dinkheller called for backup.
At one point, Brannan yelled he was a “Vietnam combat veteran.” After rummaging in his truck, despite Dinkheller’s commands to stop, Brannan pulled out a .30 M-1 carbine and opened fire, hitting Dinkheller nine times, including firing one last shot at close range. He was later found hiding in the woods and arrested.
At trial, his attorney claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity and presented experts who testified he suffered from post traumatic stress disorder, which had triggered a flashback to Vietnam. However, the court-appointed psychiatrist concluded Brannan was sane, and the jury found him guilty of murder, rejecting his insanity defense.
In 2002, the Georgia Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence. In 2003, Brannan filed a petition challenging the legality of his conviction and sentence in the county where he is imprisoned. After a hearing, the court threw out Brannan’s death sentence on the grounds that his trial counsel had been ineffective for failing to present certain mental health defenses in both the guilt-innocence and sentencing phases of his trial. The judge found that trial counsel was deficient for failing to emphasize Brannan’s history of bipolar disorder and depression, and produce evidence of the traumas Brannan had suffered in Vietnam.
But in today’s 23-page decision, the Supreme Court found that trial counsel did present expert witnesses and evidence of Brannan’s mental illness.