On Tuesday evening, Georgia executed Andrew Howard Brannan for the 1998 shooting death of Laurens County sheriff’s deputy Kyle Dinkheller
On January 12, 1998, Laurens County (Georgia) sheriff’s deputy Kyle Dinkheller, 22, pulled over Andrew Howard Brannan, 49, for driving 98 mph on a rural road. Brannon got out of his pickup truck cursing and began dancing in the street. He yelled “I’m a goddamn Vietnam combat veteran.” As the officer was calling for backup, Brannon reached inside his pickup and grabbed an M-1 carbine. He yelled “shoot me” and rushed at the officer while firing the gun. Dinkheller fired back, hitting the combat veteran in the gut. The dashcam on the patrol car picked up Dinkheller screaming as Brannon fired one last shot at point-blank range and yelled “Die fucker!” The officer had been shot nine times.
Kyle Dinkheller left behind a pregnant wife and a 22-month-old daughter.
Brannon was tried in 2000, convicted and sentenced to death. Brannon had pled guilty by reason of insanity, but after a psychiatric examination that plea was rejected. Three appeals by his lawyers arguing that in 1991, Brannon was diagnosed as being “100 percent disabled” by PTSD and that five years later he was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Petitions on those grounds to the parole board and the three appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme court fell on deaf ears.
Brannon, now 66, was executed Tuesday at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson. He was pronounced dead at 8:33 p.m.
Had I been allowed in the death chamber, I would have told Brannon, “You told Deputy Dinkheller, ‘die fucker.’ No, you die fucker!”
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