Eddie Ray Routh Deprived of His Right to a Fair Trial

‘American Sniper’ Trial Sets Town on Edge

New York Times
February 9, 2015

The trial of the man charged with killing Chris Kyle, a former sniper for the Navy SEALs, is scheduled to open here on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The blockbuster war movie about Mr. Kyle, “American Sniper,” now playing at Cinemark Cinema 6 three miles from the courtroom, will be showing at 3:40 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10:20 p.m.

But aside from the questions about the legal proceedings, something more than a double-murder trial is set to play out here this week. “American Sniper” has become a cultural moment far beyond the reach of the book, the movie or the criminal case against Mr. Routh. And just as the movie has been debated for what it says about war and warriors, the trial will dissect what war did to and for two men — one of them hailed, particularly in Texas, as an American hero, the other a fellow soldier on trial for two murders that people here are still trying to comprehend two years later.

Mr. Kyle’s celebrity hangs over the trial and the town, larger in death than it was in life. The sign outside the Grand Entry Western Store advertises Chris Kyle baseball caps for sale. More ominously, a man called the local newspaper, The Stephenville Empire-Tribune, and told the managing editor that a bomb was going to go off before jury selection. Officials have earmarked $1 million for security in and around the Donald R. Jones Justice Center, where the trial will be held. On the first day of the juror qualification process last week, the judge excused 39 potential jurors, including 12 who said the pretrial publicity made them biased about the case.

“The death happening here, that makes it more personal,” said Chick Elms, 68, a co-owner of the Grand Entry, a Western wear shop. “They’re not seeking the death penalty, which I think is hogwash.”

Mr. Routh’s lawyers, Warren St. John and Tim Moore, have included the movie and the local support for Mr. Kyle in their legal case, asking the judge to postpone the trial. They cited the popularity of the movie, its release in local theaters, the bomb threat and Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to declare Monday last week, the two-year anniversary of Mr. Kyle’s death, Chris Kyle Day in Texas.

The judge, Jason Cashon of Erath County District Court, denied their request. Mr. Routh’s lawyers also asked the judge to move the proceedings out of Erath County, describing “so great a prejudice” against their client that he could not get a fair trial.

Judge Cashon turned down that motion as well, but it was clear last week as prospective jurors crowded the courtroom that he had concerns about the publicity surrounding the case.

“Stay away from it,” he told them bluntly.

A pool of about 240 qualified for jury selection. Prosecutors and defense lawyers questioned many of them Monday before a jury of 10 women and two men, plus two alternates, was sworn in. One prospective juror was dismissed for discussing the case with a reporter for The Independent, a British newspaper.

Mr. Kyle, who became the military’s deadliest sniper while protecting Marines in Iraq, took Mr. Routh to the range on Feb. 2, 2013. Mr. Kyle often used trips to the range as a form of therapy for wounded and troubled veterans. Once there, Mr. Routh turned his handgun on Mr. Kyle, 38, and Mr. Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield, 35, and then fled in Mr. Kyle’s truck, the authorities said.

Mr. Routh has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have told the judge that they planned to raise an insanity defense. Mr. Routh, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq, told the authorities in the months before the shooting that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Proceeds from cap sales go to the American Valor Foundation. Credit Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Amid tight security that included bomb-sniffing dogs, a lawyer with the Texas Attorney General’s Office, who is assisting the Erath County district attorney in prosecuting the case, told prospective jurors about the legal parameters of an insanity defense.

“One in five people have some kind of mental health problem,” said the assistant attorney general, Jane Starnes. “There is a big spectrum of mental health disorders. What the law doesn’t say is that everybody with a mental illness gets a free pass to commit a crime.”

The trial, expected to last two weeks, will unfold in a criminal-justice building near the courthouse square and the life-size statue of Moo-La, a plastic cow celebrating the county’s status, in 1972, as the state’s top milk producer. Long before joining the Navy, Mr. Kyle had attended Tarleton State University here, the biggest employer in a town of nearly 19,000.

Chick Elms, co-owner of the Grand Entry, a Western wear shop in Stephenville that sells Chris Kyle baseball caps.

“We’ve never had anything like this in this town,” said Carol Gibson, 64, the owner of the Rockin’ P Bar and Grill across from the courthouse. “When it first happened, everybody was talking about it. Then it calmed down. Now the movie’s come out, the trial’s getting closer, and the talk is back up about it again.”

The movie has only heightened Mr. Kyle’s stature in Texas. His memorial service was held at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, his coffin, draped with flag, resting on the giant blue star at the 50-yard line. He was buried in Austin at the Texas State Cemetery, alongside former Texas governors and senators. Many of the county residents who received the 800 juror summonses that officials mailed out have seen the film, although Judge Cashon told them that having watched “American Sniper” did not automatically disqualify them.

“If ever there were grounds for an out-of-state change of venue, this has to be the case,” said Brock Hunter, a Minneapolis lawyer who is an expert on defending veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder in criminal cases. “The tough-minded Texas culture would make it difficult enough, but this veteran has the additional burden of having killed a bona fide Texas hero.”

Other lawyers disagreed.

“I’m not sure that knowing who the victim is, or having an opinion about the victim, necessarily means that the accused can or cannot get a fair trial,” said Anthony G. Buzbee, a Houston trial lawyer who handles high-profile cases, including defending former Gov. Rick Perry in his criminal case. “Setting aside the movie or the book, what Chris Kyle was about and the fact that he was trying to assist the accused at the time of the alleged crime will make it a difficult case to defend no matter where it is tried. But that is just the facts of the case that create that difficulty, not a movie or venue.”

Hours after his arrest, Mr. Routh confessed to the murders in an interview with the authorities that was videotaped and later played at a pretrial hearing. Mr. Routh told a Texas Ranger, Danny L. Briley, that he was struggling with unnamed forces “eating at his soul,” and rambled at times about pigs and “talking to the wolf, the one in the sky.”

Mr. Routh said that neither Mr. Kyle nor Mr. Littlefield had known he was going to shoot them, and that the one he had shot first was “the one I could clearly identify,” referring to Mr. Kyle.

“I knew if I did not take his soul, he was going to take mine,” he said.

Concerns of a Fair Trail in the American Sniper Murder Trial

By Nicholas H. Esser, University of Miami School of Law
February 25, 2015

Known widely for the popular movie American Sniper, one of history’s most deadly snipers and American Hero Chris Kyle had his life taken too soon. There is no question that Chris Kyle was murdered along with his neighbor and friend Chad Littlefield. There is little question that the man who ended those lives was fellow veteran Eddie Routh. The only question that remains is whether Routh, whom appears to suffer from PTSD, can be relieved of guilt via the insanity defense. Thus, concerns that an impartial jury cannot be found may not matter as much as some make it out to be.

The insanity defense is one of the few major defenses that the public as a whole knows. However, it is a complicated subject and the movie and tv drama depictions do not do it justice. There are different standards for each jurisdiction. In order to properly prove an insanity defense in Texas, the defendant must go through the requirements of the M’Naghten Rule: “”[T]o establish a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason, from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong.” This is supplemented by the Irresistible Impulse Test: “the defendant will be found not guilty by reason of insanity if they can show that as a result of mental disease or defect, they could not resist the impulse to commit the crime of which they are accused, due to an inability to control their actions.”

Applied to this case, the defense has to prove that Routh did not know what he was doing was wrong or was not able to control himself because of a mental defect. This means that regardless of his potentially unstable mental condition, regardless of the PTSD diagnosis, if Routh knew that killing Kyle and Littlefield was wrong, he should be found guilty of murder. This will be the main focus of the trial.

The prosecutor has chosen not to pursue the death penalty. If the defense fails to convince the jury of this, then Routh will face life in prison without parol; or if a lesser offense (not first degree murder) is proven then parol may be available. If the defense is successful, Routh will still may be civilly committed due to his mental state. However, if the defense is successful in applying the insanity defense using PTSD, what does that mean for other veterans who have been diagnosed with PTSD. This trial will likely effect more than just the parties directly involved.