Dear friends,
My name is Ryan Sanshuck. I am a U.S. Army combat veteran and a Purple Heart recipient, as well as a licensed social worker. I served in Operation Iraqi Freedom from 2006 to 2007. Since then, I have been fighting a different kind of battle — one for mercy, justice, and truth.
This Veterans Day, Florida is preparing to execute two of its own: U.S. Marine Corps veteran Bryan Frederick Jennings, scheduled to die this Thursday, November 13, just two days after Veterans Day, and U.S. Army veteran Richard “Malik” Randolph (Malik Abdul-Sajjad), scheduled to die one week later, on November 20.
That means within one week, our state will have killed two men who once swore the same oath I did.
Governor Ron DeSantis has overseen the executions of seven U.S. military veterans, including five this year alone. With two more veterans now scheduled to die in the coming days, that number will rise to nine — more than under any other governor in Florida’s history.
Every one of these men served their country. Each came home carrying invisible wounds: traumatic brain injuries, PTSD, Gulf War Illness, or severe mental illness that our government failed to treat.
When I came back from Iraq, I had nightmares, rage, depression, and panic attacks. I drank too much, isolated myself, and struggled to see a future. The only reason I’m alive today is that I finally got the help I needed. The difference between me and the veterans Florida is about to kill is simple: I had access to care. They didn’t. That’s not an excuse for what they did. It’s an indictment of what we did to them.
Our government sent them to war and failed them when they came home. And now, the State of Florida is completing the cycle of abandonment by carrying out their executions. It’s the final act of betrayal.
In 2009, the United States Supreme Court recognized this in Porter v. McCollum. The Court said our nation has “a long tradition of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service,” acknowledging that combat trauma carries “a mental and emotional toll that juries might find mitigating.” Florida’s courts have ignored that principle. So has the Governor — even though he, too, served in Iraq and should understand what this means.
Governor DeSantis can stop these executions at any time, for any reason. Instead, he has signed warrant after warrant, with no regard for the circumstances that may have contributed to them ending up on death row while calling Florida “the most veteran-friendly state in the nation.” But a veteran-friendly state does not execute veterans. A leader who claims to honor service should not take the lives of those who bore the cost of it.
When the State of Florida executes veterans, it tells every one of us that our pain and our service don’t matter. It says that the same government that sent us to war, and failed to care for us when we came home, is willing to throw us away when we struggle the most. I am under no illusions about the horrible nature of the crimes that the veterans on Florida’s death row were convicted of. As a father, I feel rage when I think about something similar happening to my son or someone I love. And yet, I know that two wrongs don’t make a right. I saw this during Operation Iraqi Freedom, and I see it again now in our criminal-legal system.
We need to say what should be obvious by now: veterans suffering from PTSD, brain injury, or service-connected mental illness should never face execution. There must be a categorical exemption for veterans facing the death penalty in this country, just as there already is for those under the age of 18 and those with intellectual disabilities. Mercy is not weakness — it’s the strength our nation claims to stand for.
This Veterans Day, I’m asking you to stand with me as a fellow American, not only as a veteran. Urge Florida’s leaders to stop these executions. Honor service by defending life.
Sincerely,
Sergeant Ryan Sanshuck
P.S. Please take action for Bryan Jennings, Richard Randolph (Malik Abdul-Sajjad), and Mark Geralds.