US Marine Fights Conviction For Suicide Attempt

25-year-old Lazzaric T. Caldwell, a “discharged Marine private who slit his wrists in a suicide attempt,” is “fighting his military conviction for deliberately injuring himself, arguing the punishment is inconsistent with the armed forces’ efforts to battle a rise in suicides during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Caldwell’s defense attorney, Navy Lt. Mike Hanzel, “said this week he will ask the military’s highest court, the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces in Washington, to hear the case.” Hanzel “claims military law prohibits intentional self-injury prosecutions for genuine suicide attempts induced by depression, PTSD or other mental illness because the mental illness makes it impossible to prove a guilty intent.”