Posted on 01/10/2010 11:00:02 AM PST by DogBarkTree
Deputy Kyle Dinkheller, Laurens County, GA, was minutes from being off duty when he encountered a speeding pickup truck going 98 mph. The deputy was an ICE (Interstate Criminal Enforcement) officer that dealt with traffic infractions, speeding and the occasional drug bust. This was a low risk or unknown risk stop for speeding. He radioed in the speeding infraction, made a U-turn in the median and pursued the vehicle. The driver, Andrew Brannan, stopped his vehicle, exited and started a crazy, dancing jig in the middle of the road while swearing at the officer and shouting ‘I’m a god-damned Vietnam vet.” At first, he ignored Dinkheller’s commands to step towards the deputy, which always began with `Sir’. When he finally complied, he attacked the deputy and a scuffle ensued. The deputy implemented the use of his asp and ordered Brannan to `get back’. This procedure was repeated, but after what appeared to be a second scuffle, the suspect returned to his vehicle and retrieved a M-I Carbine from under the seat. The first shots were fired nearly 50 seconds after Brannan returned to his vehicle despite the deputy’s commands. Brannan ignored the repeated commands to put the gun down and Deputy Dinkheller apparently fired the first shot. Brannan, a Vietnam veteran, advanced firing on the deputy. Dinkheller returned fire, but succeeded only in breaking a window in the driver’s side of the pickup and wounding Brannan in the stomach. Using `suppressive fire’, Brannan systematically, methodically shot Dinkheller in the arms, legs, exposed areas that would not be covered had Dinkheller been wearing a bulletproof vest, slowly executing him. Reloading his weapon Brannan continued firing with the final death shot to Dinkheller’s right eye.
Horrible. They can’t fry him fast enough.
Horrible, just horrible!
This is several years old and the video is used for police training all over Georgia and elsewhere now.
For later.
How long does it take for death sentences to be carried out in Georgia? He would have already gotten the needle if this was in Texas or Florida.
Watched this video during a Caliber Press Survival Seminar.
Here is another. http://mentalammo.com/Video.htmlhttp://mentalammo.com/Video.html
Watch the one that is about the Texas DPS trooper Randall Vetter. Troopers arriving to assist did not know that the person who summoned help was also the murderer.
It’s hard to find but another video Trooper Mark Coates is a perfect example about why there are no guarantees in a gun fight. Trooper Coates contacted a suspect named Richard Blackburn on a traffic stop. Blackburn was friendly and compliant until the moment Trooper Coates asked if he was carrying a weapon. Blackburn resisted a patdown, pulled a .22 caliber revolver, and in turn was shot five times center mass with a .357, one round loading a quarter inch away from a major artery. Blackburn got one shot off that went under Coates armpit and eventually killed him.
A fellow trooper that arrived to assist Coates almost shot several citizens who arrived on the scene with weapons because he did not know who the assailant was.
It's a mindset issue. Lack of decisive action, repeating the same orders over and over again.
When I first saw this, I found myself hollering at the screen, 'Dammit, DO something!'
I thought the trooper should have closed the distance before the nut got out the gun. Shooting a pistol from that distance is hard enough without the added stress of being under fire. I kept saying, “shoot him” when the guy was fumbling with the gun inside the truck.
Brannan's case is before the state's highest court on a writ of habeas corpus, which is standard procedure filed by inmates who believe they have been wrongly convicted of a crime.
Laurens County District Attorney Craig Fraser joined Assistant State Attorney General Beth Burton on Monday as the two presented combined arguments before the Supreme Court. Fraser and Burton argued that the January 2000 conviction and sentence should be carried out.
"The jury spoke and we are confident that the court will uphold the jury's verdict and the death penalty," Fraser said just after leaving the state's highest court. "We've fought for 10 years in this case and we will continue to stand by the Dinkheller family to see that justice prevails."
Fraser, then an assistant district attorney, prosecuted the case which was moved to Glynn County due to pretrial publicity in Laurens County. Brannan, now 60, was found guilty in January 2000 after jurors deliberated four hours. After another four hours, the jury recommended Brannan be sentenced to death.
The Video Evidence
Dinkheller's execution was captured on his own patrol cruiser recorder after he pulled Brannan over for speeding. The chilling video is now used nationwide to train police officers about waiting too long to respond aggressively to an armed suspect.
The video documents the moments that followed after Dinkheller pulled Brannan over on Whipple's Crossing Road on Jan. 12, 1998. As Brannan exits his vehicle, he is seen on the video jumping around, flailing his arms and yelling at the deputy to shoot him.
Dinkheller is heard trying to reason with Brannan even as Brannan reached back inside his vehicle to pull out a high-powered military issued rifle. Dinkheller repeatedly ordered Brannan to put the gun down.
Brannan, a former Vietnam veteran and military trained killer, then began a gun battle with the young deputy, resulting in dozens of rounds being discharged at close range between the men. Both Dinkheller and Brannan reloaded several times in under 30 seconds. Brannan hit the deputy at least 10 times with the .30-caliber carbine, systematically disabling him until the final fatal shot.
Dinkheller, 23, was married with one child and another on the way.
In January, the Lauren's County Sheriff's Office and the District Attorney's Office held a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of Dinkheller's murder. The memorial service commemorated Dinkheller's life and public service. A wreath placed at the site of his tragic death on Whipple's Crossing remains in view from I-16.
Brannan's Appeals Process
Brannan was scheduled for execution in May of 2003, but he was granted a stay of execution as he began his way through the appeals process. In criminal convictions, a direct appeal is immediately filed with the State Supreme Court, and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court. In Brannan's case, the State Supreme Court upheld his conviction and death sentence; likewise the U.S. Supreme Court in essence affirmed the conviction by refusing to review the case.
Brannan's next standard appeal was to file the writ of habeas corpus, which sent the case back to the Georgia Supreme Court justices.
In petitioning for a habeas corpus, a defendant must prove that the court that ordered his imprisonment made a legal or factual error. Brannan's writ stated that he had been diagnosed by Veteran's Administration hospitals in Decatur and Augusta as suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and bipolar disorder. It further questioned whether Brannan was properly medicated at the time he killed Dinkheller.
In March, Superior Court Judge Richard C. Sutton of Butts County granted Brannan's petition, saying "this Court finds ineffective assistance of counsel" by Brannan's defense attorney during the trial in January 2000. Brannan was represented during his trial by Richard Taylor and Larry Duttweiler.
In his ruling, Sutton refers to "factual history" stating that Taylor was designated as lead counsel but had never represented a client in a death penalty proceeding.
Sutton stated in his ruling that Brannan's defense attorneys "completely undermined" his defense by not adequately exploring the documented history of Brannan's mental illness. The judge stated that Brannan's attorneys limited his defense strategy to "guilty but mentally ill" which Sutton said left Brannan's bizarre actions on the video unexplained.
Mentally ill or not, that guy is a cold blooded killer. You can’t convince me he didn’t know he was doing wrong.
Indeed, Florida and Texas are much more efficient. In Georgia, most death row inmates can live to a ripe old age, at least 20-25 years beyond their court date.
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