ATLANTA (WXIA) -- A Vietnam veteran convicted of killing a Laurens County deputy was executed on Tuesday.
Andrew Brannan died by lethal injection at 8:33 p.m., according to authorities.
Around 7:45 p.m., the United States Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Brannan. Earlier on Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court also denied a request for a stay of execution.
Brannan was convicted of shooting and killing Laurens County Deputy Kyle Dinkheller during a 1998 traffic stop. Supporters of the veteran had argued that his life should have been spared because he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Georgia State Parole Board listened to both sides in the case on Monday.
The five members of the parole and pardons board began deliberating after they heard the case. They had the authority to commute or lessen the sentence against Brannan. Attorneys for Brannan spent 3.5 hours laying out their case for clemency, asking that their client's sentence be commuted to life without parole instead of the death penalty.
In the 1998 dashcam, the veteran can be seen unloading his rifle at the deputy, shooting the husband and father nine times, killing him.
The lawyers said Brannan was 100 percent disabled from PTSD – and that the veteran was off of his bi-polar medication. Yet, 11Alive asked, what exactly they would say to the family of Deputy Dinkheller – who very much wants Brannan to die for his crime.
"The loss to me – I can't put it in words," said Brannan's attorney, Joe Loveland. "But I would say is that I don't believe that the execution of Andrew Brannan, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, with no prior criminal history, whatsoever, who is unquestionably suffering from both bi-polar disorder and ptsd – that execution can't solve anything, and that it can't in any way fill the void I know they must feel."
Monday evening, Loveland released a statement regarding the parole board's decision:
"On behalf of Andrew Brannan and his family, we are profoundly disappointed in the decision of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to deny clemency. The death of Deputy Sheriff Kyle Dinkheller was a terrible tragedy. Executing a 66-year-old decorated Vietnam veteran with no prior criminal record who was seriously ill at the time of the crime only compounds the tragedy."
The original prosecutor and others against clemency spent about the same amount of time making their case. No one from that side wanted to speak with 11Alive News after the hearing.
Late Monday, the board issued a release stating it had voted to deny clemency.
There are five members of the board – each appointed by the governor. In order to commute or reduce a sentence, three of the five board members must agree. Since 2002, the parole board has commuted five death sentences.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Supreme Court, by a 6 to 1 decision, denied a stay of execution for Brannan. The court also denied a request by Brannan's attorneys for a writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a stay of execution in Butts County, where he is presently incarcerated.
Brannan died by lethal injection at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, Ga.
Twenty deputies from Laurens County were slated to be witnesses to the execution.
Brannan's lawyer Joe Loveland said:
In a telephone call from the prison this afternoon, only hours before his scheduled execution, Andrew Brannan responded to learning that his case had touched many veterans and helped raise public awareness of the impact of PTSD on veterans by saying, "I am proud to have been able to walk point for my comrades, and pray that the same thing does not happen to any of them."
