Also, a picture of the subject:
Posted on 11/28/2009 5:26:14 PM PST by Steelfish
Did The War Make Him Do It?
Iraq veteran Jessie Bratcher shot the man he was told had raped his girlfriend. An Oregon jury found he had been legally insane at the time because of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Kim Murphy November 28, 2009
Reporting from John Day, Ore. - When Jessie Bratcher's fiancee told him the baby might not be his, that she had been raped two months earlier, he went quiet. The former Oregon National Guardsman hung his head for the longest time. Then he went into the next room, put the barrel of an AK-47 in his mouth and took it out again.
He told Celena Davis not to expect to get any sleep that night. He walked up to her with a pair of scissors and slowly cut off her hair.
Two mornings later, they drove to the hardware store. While Davis waited in the truck, Bratcher went in and bought a gun. He came out, loaded it and asked: Do we go to the police? Or go find the guy?
"Police," Davis said.
Except it was a Saturday, and the main door to the station was locked. Bratcher and Davis didn't know there was an emergency door on the side of the building.
So they headed for Jose Ceja Medina's trailer.
At first Medina, standing on his porch in running shorts, denied knowing Davis. Then he said that they'd had sex, but that he hadn't raped her, and he offered to take care of the baby.
He ended up with six hollow-point bullets in him.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The guy got what he deserved, put me on the jury and see what pops up.
Have sex with a man’s wife when he is off to war and you deserve to be shot
The only question is who gets it- Rape? just him...
If the baby had Hispanic characteristics, Jessie might have been suspicious the baby wasn’t his. The question here is was she really raped or just covering her butt?
It is estimated that some 100,000 GIs will suffer from PTSD as a result of our recent wars. Many will become homeless. Something really must be done to reintegrate our service members.
My husband suffered for years from his Korean War PTSD, tried to ruin our marriage because he didn’t feel he had a right to a decent life because so many of the guys he went to school with had died. Eventually, I discovered “The Primal Scream”, by Arthur Janov. After I read the book I realized that this is what I needed to do to process some trauma of my own, plus the trauma of the marriage. Eventually I got my husband into it. I finally learned some of the terrible things that had happened during his service and that were filling him with guilt and anguish. Finally, he ended up a much better and far less troubled person and our marriage improved. Read the book if you have PTSD or want to help someone who has it.
I’d do the girlfriend for manslaughter for winding up a man was apparently violently mentally ill, and telling him that she had been raped......
Of course, there is no discussion about why someone who already has an "AK47" needs to go out and buy a hand gun (which apparently was handed over to him without a waiting period, background check, etc.) and then ask if he should go to the police...maybe he bought the Kalashnikov for eating and needed a Smith & Wesson for killing well meaning (he'd take care of the kid) recent immigrants.
Loved the utterly weird quote by a "former drill instructor" suggesting a lobotomy to celebrate DEROS.
At least I know the L.A. Times hasn't changed it's opinion of veterans in general and Vietnam veterans in particular.
They should quit selling those hollow point bullets/s
I know someone who only recently started some kinda treatment for PTSD - from the Korean war too.
The difference in him is already remarkable.
Did you read the rest of the article? He saw his best friend crushed to death.
Nope,didn't catch that.So scratch the reference to a "supply depot" from my previous post.
Every sympathy to the soldier, as being stabbed in the back by his wife is a terrible blow. She told him that she was raped, saw the mental anguish this caused him, being unable to protect his wife while deployed overseas defending his country, and for two days, she couldn’t bother to pick up the phone and call police, not to mention the two months before.
Even when he forced the issue, getting a handgun, and intending on going and killing her rapist, she couldn’t think to dial 911. When they arrived at the trailer, she participated in a discussion with the rapist, rather than run to neighbors seeking assistance and police intervention.
The husband gets a pass from me. The wife should be investigated for manslaughter.
What’s wrong with you people? You’re saying some guy can commit pre-meditated, cold blooded murder just because some guy fools around with his girlfriend and you would let him off because of some psychobabble stress disorder? What if the victim was a member of your family? Still think he should be murdered for this?
it was rape, or it wasn't... if not, bad move.
One early case of “innocent by reason of insanity” was Daniel Sickles, who shot and killed his wifes lover. Edwin Stanton was his defense attorney.
After being found innocent, Sickles took his wife back, and that resulted in him losing office and being disgraced.
Sickles went on to be a Corps commander at Gettysburg, confusing some ambiguous orders and getting caught in a cross fire at the “Peach Orchard”. After the Civil War he was instrumental in preserving the Gettysburg battlefield.
http://www.historynet.com/daniel-sickles-an-unlikely-union-general.htm/2
I don’t like this defense, it gives the public the impression that many combat veterans have incapacitating psychiatric problems.
That’s not fair to the vast majority of combat veterans I’ve known that don’t act out like this at all.
Be careful with these numbers. PTSD can be used to take a vets 2nd Amendment rights from him. Now, you may say that this is possibly a good thing. Until you find out that checking the "yes" box for bad dreams/nightmares on a survey can get you diagnosed with PTSD.
How many on FreeRepublic have never had a bad dream? How many here think that you can do the job and never lose a night's sleep? Also keep in mind that servicemembers generally lean more conservative. They are also likely to own personal firearms, and at the very least have nominal training with firearms.
Now strain your imagination real hard and think of an administration that may hat private firearms ownership. Think using tactics such as post-deployment screening forms to disarm large numbers of the population is beyond them?
With or without the PTSD should be found not guilty. You knowingly sleep with, or rape a vet's wife while he's off on foreign shores; you deserve the bullet. And if you're an illegal immigrant to boot, your family should get the bill for said bullet(s).
hat private firearms ownership = HATE private firearms ownership.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.