2025 Was a Deadly Year for Veterans Behind Bars
With the number of executions nearly doubling from 2024 to 2025, this year was especially deadly for military veterans on death row, according to a new report published by the Death Penalty Information Center. Throughout 2025, ten veterans were executed, amounting to roughly one in four of all people executed or under warrant during the year. Florida is almost solely responsible for the rise; out of 19 total executions carried out in the state in 2025, seven of the people killed were veterans.
The physical and mental hazards of military service have led to a “battlefied-to-prison” pipeline for a substantial minority of veterans. On May 1, 2025, Florida executed Jeffrey Hutchinson, a Gulf War veteran who was both a Paratrooper and an Army Ranger. Hutchinson, as a result of his service, was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), exposed to concussive blasts and toxic chemicals like sarin nerve gas, and suffered a traumatic brain injury, according to an appeal letter sent to state Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) by a group of 129 veterans. “[Hutchinson]’s mind was a casualty, just like any limb lost in combat,” the letter said. “To execute him now is not justice. It is a failure of responsibility.”
While the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has recognized that a military record is a mitigating factor in capital punishment, lower courts often have followed suit (not to mention that in 2025, SCOTUS denied every request to stay an execution). What’s worse, as the Death Penalty Information Center’s report highlights, “many veterans have been executed without a jury ever hearing meaningful information about their service.”
Sources: USA Today, Military.com, Death Penalty Information Center
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