ATLANTA (AP) – A Georgia death row inmate suffers from mental illness that can be traced directly to his military service in Vietnam and should be spared execution, his lawyers argued in a clemency petition filed Wednesday.
Andrew Brannan, 66, is to be executed Tuesday for the January 1998 slaying of 22-year-old Laurens County sheriff’s deputy Kyle Dinkheller. The Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles is set to hold a clemency hearing Monday.
“He had been through horror and was damaged severely by it, and that’s all documented,” Brian Kammer, a lawyer for Brannan, told The Associated Press. “It’s hard to believe that a fair system that sorts out the worst of the worst from other kinds of murderers would put him in that category for execution.”
Dublin Judicial Circuit District Attorney Craig Fraser, who prosecuted Brannan, did not return calls seeking comment.
Authorities have said Dinkheller stopped Brannan for driving 98 mph and demanded he take his hands from his pockets. Brannan then began cursing, dancing in the street and saying “shoot me” before he rushed the deputy. After a scuffle, Brannan pulled a high-powered rifle from his car and shot Dinkheller nine times.