We're anticipating a 'the gulf war made me do it' defense. Defendant served during Desert Storm. Now he robs gas stations with a knife.

Anyone encountered this sort of defense before? What experts would you use to counter the claim that post traumatic stress disorder excuses his conduct?

Phillip,
We had a guy once claim that Vietnam made him download thousands of images of child porn. Apparently, looking at every imaginable (and some unimaginable) type of porn eased his stress and guilt and reduced his flashbacks ..... uh.... okay.....

We contacted a guy in Dallas named B.G. Burkett. He's gotten quite a bit of press over the years debunking the various "Vietnam made me do it" defenses. He's not a shrink but he was able to look at our guy's military records and concluded that there was never any combat or anything else during his tours of duty to have caused the claimed flashbacks.....

I could be wrong about this, but his stock may have gone down lately. I seem to recall he got caught up in the flap over the Bush National Guard records mess.
This may not be exactly what you need, but he sure helped us.

Dr. David Self at Rusk State Hospital. He does risk assessments for NGRI and long term commitments. If you need to, email me tomorrow (9/21/05) and I will give you his contact info.

Regardless of what the defense is calling it, this sounds an awful lot like an insanity defense -- so have you gotten NOTICE of the intent to raise this as a defense? If not, OBJECT. If you have gotten notice, a thorough exam of the defendant should reveal how much treatment he has sought since his Gulf was service (probably none or nearly none). Since the claim is based on a mental disease or defect, you can probably proceed to get that issue addressed separately. You might also see what his discharge date was, and the type of discharge, and see if he has any "service connected disabilities." Good luck.

Larry's advice is good. You'll definitely want to investigate this guy's history, and probably seek your own exam of the defendant (do a Lagrone motion)if the defense is going this way. Don't overlook, though, that there has to be a causal connection between the mental illness and the offense for the insanity defense to fly. I'd be very curious to see what delusions or hallucinations (or other mental illness) instruct someone to rob a gas station with knife. That would be quite unusual. Sounds more like drug useage or just "pissed off at the world" or -- imagine this -- he just wanted money.

If he's claiming PTSD as a result of his military service, I'd also try and check with the Veteran's Administration or local VA hospital to see if he's been receiving benefits or treatment for a service related disability.

The VA is a good suggestion, but they will not release records with only a subpoena. Your subpoena will need to be signed by a judge before the VA will release records.