Particularly with such purposefully inflicted trauma, an effort is made by the perpetrators to sweep the consequences under the proverbial rug, to hide the real impact of human violence and violation. This is even more the case with institutions that are wholly designed to inflict trauma and reap disempowerment on a global scale, such as the US military establishment. We should thus find it unsurprising that while such an institution shirks responsibility for the torture and terror it sows across occupied lands like Iraq, it would also leave behind casualties of trauma within its own ranks.

Bryan's trauma

Bryan Dammon Smith, a Detroit native, is a decorated and disabled veteran as well as husband and father of four. For fifteen years he has suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as well as physical disabilities, as a result of his military service; he is currently awaiting trial on capital charges in San Diego, California, scheduled for October.

Growing up, Bryan succeeded in most everything he tried his hand at ? he was a natural leader, always working to improve himself and strengthen his community. Among his many achievements, he was elected class president in high school, competed in the Junior Olympics and was a Reserve Officers Training Core (ROTC) Major. Rather than attend college ? and over the objections of his family ? he decided to join the Marines after high school. Showing immediate promise, he soon received official commendations from his superiors.

During a Special Forces training operation in June 1992, tragedy struck by way of an equipment failure. Eight months into his military service, Bryan fell sixty feet down a cliff and landed head and shoulders first; his back broke in four places, and his knees and legs were severely damaged. He stayed in the Marines for a year afterward, slowly recuperating, working for the chaplain and organizing a regimental choir that performed for the larger community. He was discharged in 1993 after being declared only partially disabled, thus limiting his compensation and access to healthcare. And, like many other veterans, he was left without the job training or resources to make the necessary transition back to civilian life.

Bryan's personality changed deeply after the fall, and seven years afterward he was diagnosed with severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) induced by his accident. Yet it took eleven years from the time of his fall for him to be given full disability, and in the meantime, he suffered from a bevy of symptoms such as continuous pain, severe memory loss, insomnia, nightmares and migraines. At the same time, his mental state worsened without diagnosis or treatment. Despite his physical and psychological wounds, he was expected by those responsible for his accident to fend for himself.

In 1994, Bryan ? who had no previous criminal record ? was arrested and charged with drug and weapons possession (the latter for carrying his Marines-issue billy club in the trunk of his car). He spent nearly nine years in and out of correctional facilities, sent back three times for violating his parole. Each time, he did so by travelling to Detroit, visiting his family and trying to reconstruct his memory and his life.

After getting off of parole in California, Bryan moved back to Detroit to be near his family. He remarried and worked hard to pull his life together, finally receiving disability. In late 2005, he was extradited from Michigan to face charges of felony murder from a 1994 San Diego robbery, in which Tayser El Farra was killed while working at his convenience store. The state of California omitted any mention of the death penalty from their extradition request to the state of Michigan, where the death penalty has never been used and was banned in 1846. This omission perhaps occurred because mention of capital punishment might have led to a request for non-capital charges against Bryan prior to his extradition, based on Michigan Governor Granholm's stated strong opposition to the death penalty.

_{Now, Bryan awaits his October trial date in a San Diego jail, and may very well be sentenced to death if found guilty. The Defense Committee to Free Bryan Smith is not debating the facts of the case at present; we are asking that, rather than the death penalty, he face charges that will result in "life without the benefit of parole" if found guilty. As demonstrated by numerous studies and a pending class action suit in San Diego County, death penalty juries are disproportionately white, male and 'trigger-happy,' with an acquittal rate of only five percent on death penalty cases in that county. We first want out of that mess, and then we can begin to talk about justice.}

The Larger Picture

Bryan's trauma was the result of a training accident, but there are tens of thousands of US soldiers and contractors who will soon be returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, damaged by things they have seen and done. They will need emotional support, therapy, job training and enormous efforts to help them integrate themselves back into society; the Defense Committee hopes to encourage long-term organizing around issues of trauma and recovery, as these needs require resources that we must both demand from the government and organize to provide ourselves as communities. We are up against a system that trains its soldiers to inflict violence ? leaving them traumatized in addition to the targeted communities ? and then drops them back into civilian life without the skills and resources they need.

Beyond Bryan's plight, this is also a fight against larger social injustices, faced by millions of Americans: an appalling insistence on clinging to capital punishment in a world that has largely left it behind; insufficient resources and re-training for veterans, regardless of their ranking; a lack of access to adequate care for physical and mental health issues; and an ongoing genocide in the United States, where communities of color are broken over and over again in hopes that someday they will finally give up and disappear.

If you want to help us resist the government's insistence that it can deny our loved ones their right to exist, please ? talk to members of your community about Bryan's situation. Anyone is invited to help in any way they can, and we are already working with a number of church groups, veterans' organizations, people of color community organizations, progressive/radical groups, and various other groups and individuals. We are currently seeking financial assistance to help pay for the phone calls and copies that make up our day-to-day work, as well as transportation and lodging costs for Sandra, Bryan's mother, who will be travelling to San Diego in the fall and staying about two months for the duration of the jury selection and trial. Any suggestions or other offers of help are much appreciated; checks should be made out to:

The Defense Committee to Free Bryan Smith

P.O. Box 44474

Detroit, MI 48244

We are also asking that those who wish to help write to the San Diego District Attorney, Bonnie M. Dumanis, and ask her to take the death penalty off the table. We encourage supporters of Bryan to contact certain elected representatives in Michigan; ask them to call for non-capital charges for Bryan Smith, a disabled and decorated Michigan veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Remind them that no one deserves the death penalty!

Trauma functions by shattering individual lives and whole communities, and then leaving behind the pieces. We need your help to prevent the possible murder of a mentally ill veteran, a man who had a bright future snatched away from him in the midst of his youth. We invite community members and activists everywhere to join us in this appeal, and to insist that the death penalty does not bring justice to anyone.