{"id":80819,"date":"2025-11-18T20:03:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T20:03:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/11\/18\/desantis-is-a-veteran-so-are-inmates-hell-send-to-execution-chamber\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:47:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T16:47:03","slug":"desantis-is-a-veteran-so-are-inmates-hell-send-to-execution-chamber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2025\/11\/18\/desantis-is-a-veteran-so-are-inmates-hell-send-to-execution-chamber\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis is a veteran. So are inmates he\u2019ll send to execution chamber"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editor\u2019s note: This <\/i>article<\/i><\/a> first appeared on <\/i>The War Horse<\/i><\/a>, an award-winning nonprofit news organization educating the public on military service, under the headline \u201c<\/i>Florida\u2019s governor is a veteran. So are seven inmates he\u2019ll send to the execution chamber this year<\/i>.\u201d Subscribe to their <\/i>newsletter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The caravan of executions started with a U.S. Army veteran in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It continued in May with a former Army Ranger who served in the Gulf War, then an Air Force veteran in July, a former National Guard member in August, and a Navy veteran in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, a former Marine, and next week, yet another Army veteran are scheduled to die in what Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called the \u201cmost veteran-friendly state in the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s the one who signed all seven of their death warrants. The governor wielding the executioner\u2019s pen is a Navy veteran himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey are coming so hard and so fast that it\u2019s hard to keep track,\u201d said William Kissinger, a Vietnam veteran who spent over four decades behind bars in Louisiana and now advocates on behalf of veterans on death row. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also historic. Florida is on pace to more than double its record of eight executions<\/a> in a year since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty<\/a> nearly a half century ago. The number of military veterans on the list is startling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While veterans represent an estimated 12% of Florida\u2019s 256<\/a> death<\/a> row inmates<\/a>, they account for nearly 40% of the 18 death warrants that the governor has signed this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORE COVERAGE: A List of the Veterans Florida Executed in 2025<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DeSantis, a former JAG officer who served as a legal adviser to SEAL Team One in Iraq, has ignored the pleas of some veteran advocates and refused to address the disproportionate ratio of former service members he is sending to the Florida State Prison\u2019s execution chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think he [DeSantis] is targeting vets specifically,\u201d said Art Cody, a retired Navy captain and director of the Center for Veteran Criminal Advocacy. \u201cHe is just not taking [their military backgrounds] into consideration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But should he?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should military service matter?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While death penalty opponents and tough-on-crime hard-liners clash over the moral arguments and political motivations of DeSantis\u2019 historic urgency, another debate is suddenly raging: Should an inmate\u2019s military service matter when a judge, jury, or governor decides who deserves the ultimate punishment for society\u2019s most heinous crimes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on that question 16 years ago in a case out of \u2014 none other than \u2014 Florida. The justices overturned the death sentence<\/a> of Gregory Porter, a decorated Korean War veteran convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her boyfriend, because his attorney had presented no evidence about the combat that left him \u201ca traumatized, changed man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur Nation has a long tra\u00addi\u00adtion of accord\u00ading lenien\u00adcy to vet\u00ader\u00adans in recog\u00adni\u00adtion of their ser\u00advice, espe\u00adcial\u00adly for those who fought on the front lines,\u201d the court stated in a 2009 opinion. \u201cMoreover, the relevance of Porter\u2019s extensive combat experience is not only that he served honorably under extreme hardship and gruesome conditions, but also that the jury might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll that combat took on Porter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the recent surge in veteran executions stand out, veterans advocates say, is how they contrast with the historic declines in death sentences nationally and the rising understanding of the traumatic impact of military service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n