Vietnam vet with PTSD executed in Georgia

On Tuesday, Andrew Brannan, a 66-year-old Vietnam veteran, was the first person executed in the United States in 2015.

The execution took place at 8:33 p.m. in Jackson, Georgia, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Brannan's argument that he suffered from PTSD and should not be put to death, NBC News reports. In 1998, Brannan was found guilty of killing Kyle Dinkheller, a 22-year-old Laurens County sheriff's deputy. Dash-cam footage showed Brannan, who was pulled over for driving 98 mph, dancing in the street and saying "shoot me" before he pulled out a rifle and shot the officer.

Brannan's lawyers say the jury did not hear about his military service — he received a Bronze Star and two commendation medals — or the fact that he was diagnosed with PTSD in 1984 and bipolar disorder in 1994. "The death of Deputy Sheriff Kyle Dinkheller was a terrible tragedy," Brannan's attorney Joe Loveland told NBC affiliate WXIA. "Executing a 66-year-old decorated Vietnam veteran with no prior criminal record who was seriously ill at the time of the crime only compounds the tragedy."

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