Courage to Resist.
November 18, 2008 update
Daniel Sandate, a
mentally ill US soldier, was deported
from Canada and sentenced to 8 months in
the stockade at the end of a brief
court-martial at Ft. Carson, Colorado on
Monday, November 17. His civilian
lawyer, James Branum, describes this
case below and asks that you consider
making a donation to his legal defense.
By James Branum,
attorney for Daniel Sandate. November
14, 2008
I wanted to let
everyone know about a case I am working
on. The client will be pleading guilty
to the charge of Desertion on Monday,
November 17th at 1 p.m. at Ft. Carson,
Colorado. I (along with an excellent
attorney with the JAG’s trial defense
services and local Colorado attorney
Bill Durland) will be arguing to the
court that Daniel Sandate should receive
a lesser sentence due to his extreme
mental health issues.
Daniel has asked
me to share his story with the public. A
longer version of this will be published
at a later point, but this limited
account is what Daniel has asked me to
share at this time.
The case
of Daniel Sandate
Daniel grew up
with a horrific home life that is
indescribable in nature, so
understandably he grew up experiening
severe trauma and mental health issues.
His adolensence and young adulthood were
brutal but he hoped that joining the
Army would give him a sense of purpose
and a reason to live.
Sandate was a good
soldier. He performed reasonably well in
training and did ok in the Army until he
deployed in Iraq. Like many soldiers, he
was forced to see and participate in
things that no human should ever have to
go through. He came home from Iraq shook
to the core and with a strong case of
PTSD.
Daniel tried to
get help from the Army but he was blown
off, time and time again. His situation
was quickly spiraling in a negative
direction (he was very suicidal at this
point, which was scary because he had
tried to kill himself before even
joining the Army), so when he met new
friend online who lived in Canada, he
thought it would be nice to take a break
from the Army and hang out up there for
awhile. He always wanted to come back at
some point, but just needed a break and
some time to recover his sanity.
However, while in
Canada, Daniel was threatened severely
by his old unit (he was even told by an
NCO that he could be executed for going
AWOL) so he ended up staying in Canada
for several years.
While in Canada,
he became very isolated and saw few
people other than his girlfriend. When
they broke up, things got really bad and
he tried to kill himself. He was stopped
(the police came after his downstairs
neighbors reported blood dripping from
their ceiling) and at frst hospitalized
and then later incarcerated. He was
later released from jail but due to his
suicidality he reported back to the
police and told them he wanted to be
deported to the US.
The Canadian
authorities did take Daniel back into
custody but wouldn’t release him due to
their concerns over his safety, so
Daniel called the US embassy and asked
for their assistance. Daniel was then
deported to the US, where he was
immediately taken into custody and
transported to Colorado. He has been
sitting in the county jail in Colorado
Springs ever since, and has been n
suicide watch pretty much the whole
time.
Daniel is an
intelligent, articulate man, but he is
deeply troubled. Unfortunately the Army
and the CJC (the county jail) have
refused to give him the mental health
care that he needs, so his mental health
situation has declined.
How you
can help Daniel
For Daniel’s
defense, I am raising funds to cover my
expenses and those of Bill Durland’s
(who has been invaluable to me as local
counsel). At this point, we are short
about $1000 of what is needed.
You can donate
directly on my website (www.girightslawyer.com)
or if you need the tax deduction you can
send donations by check to the
Oklahoma Center
for Conscience
504 NE 16th St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73104. |