Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, reacts as she greets war veterans after laying a wreath with her husband, Britain's Prince William, at the war memorial in Seymour Square
Catherine (L), the Duchess of Cambridge, reacts as she greets war veterans after laying a wreath with her husband, Britain's Prince William, at the war memorial in Seymour Square Reuters/Stringer

A decorated Vietnam War veteran, convicted of murdering a Georgia cop in 1998, was put to death on Tuesday. According to state officials, he became the first death row inmate to be executed in the United States in the New Year. Brannan was the recipient of Army commendations and a Bronze Star, one of the highest individual military awards, according to his lawyers. Andrew Brannan, 66, was executed by lethal injection at 8:33 p.m. EST at a prison in Jackson, Georgia, informed the state Attorney General's Office. This followed the U.S. Supreme Court rejecting two petitions to block his execution.

Road Rage

Brannan's lawyers did not dispute the fact that he shot Laurens County Sheriff's Deputy, Kyle Dinkheller, 22, nine times during a traffic stop, which was recorded by the patrol car video camera. The attorneys appealed to spare his life, arguing the severe physical and mental toll from his service in Vietnam as an Army forward artillery observer. They claimed that Brannan had suffered from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and was prone to flashbacks of the war, reported Reuters.

"Brannan's case makes clear that it is time for this court to recognise a categorical exemption from execution for American combat veterans whose service to this country resulted in severe mental trauma" that contributed to their crime, the attorneys wrote in a failed petition.

Georgia's Board of Pardons and Paroles also refused to commute Brannan's sentence to life in prison without parole. His attorneys argued in papers filed at the high court that Brannan had no criminal record before killing the deputy. "I extend my condolences to the Dinkheller family, especially Kyle's parents and his wife and two children," that was Brannan's last statement moments before he was administered the lethal injection, reported CBS News.

FB Post

Kirk Dinkheller, the slain cop's father, changed his Facebook profile picture on Tuesday to a photograph of his son's headstone. "Nothing will ever bring my son back, but finally some justice for the one who took him from his children and his family," he wrote on the social media site.

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