With members of the United States military involved in several conflicts overseas, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has become a hot topic of conversation in many criminal trials in Wisconsin and throughout the country. PTSD may cause a person to do things they wouldn’t normally do, and may incapacitate the person mentally and emotionally. Although it may be difficult at times to measure the effects of war on a person’s mental health, it may be necessary to consider the seriousness of PTSD when a seemingly harmless person commits a crime of domestic violence.
Although relatives claim his wife was simply another casualty of war, a war veteran recently pled guilty to gunning her down and killing her one night. He claims PTSD affected him the night he killed her, and he confessed after police presented him with evidence against him.
His attorney stated that he had suffered multiple injuries while serving in the military and had killed a large number of combatants, and that these factors caused him to have PTSD. The woman was a police officer in Wisconsin, and her husband expressed remorse for her killing and claims he lives in a prison of his own making for the act he committed.
The situation may seem simple with the evidence from police and the confession from the accused, but it’s important to remember that all factors should be included in the outcome of such a sensitive situation. Although the man admitted to the crime, he may have had psychological impairments that affected his ability to decipher between right and wrong with the proper help.
Source: The Chicago Tribune, “Iraq war veteran gets life for killing Wisconsin cop wife,” August 9, 2013