Veterans Have Earned Their Day in Court

In America everyone is supposed to be equal in the eyes of the law. But we've got a growing group, a particular class of defendants entering American courtrooms who I believe need special consideration. They are soldiers returning from war. Several studies conclude that between 30 percent to 40 percent of the approximately 1.6 million vets of Iraq and Afghanistan will "face serious mental-health injuries" like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and problems from traumatic brain injuries. Experts in the field report both those conditions are linked to anti-social and criminal behavior. Now, to me those numbers — up to 40 percent of the troops afflicted — seem high. But if it's even half that, it's too many brave souls returning home needing special help. So, what do we do with a soldier, who put his or her life on hold to go to a foreign land to fight for our liberty, when they come home and get into trouble with the law? To be clear, I'm not referring to the highly publicized cases where a returning soldier has committed murder. Those cases have caused many to think, "Well, you train these young men to kill, they come home and kill." But there is no research — let me repeat that, there is no research — to indicate vets commit violent crimes more often than civilians. In fact, if you extrapolate government statistics for murders committed by men ages 18 to 24, it's the civilian who is more likely to kill someone, not the vet. I'm referring here to those anti-social, behavioral problems experts report that so many of our returning soldiers suffer with in silence. Problems with substance abuse, paranoia, flashbacks and bursts of unexplained temper, problems so debilitating the vet takes out their frustrations on loved ones or commits suicide.