Starke – Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience caused serious mental problems in Florida due to the shotgun killing of his girlfriend and her three young children in 1998.
Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, was declared dead at 8:15pm after a fatal injection at a Florida State Jail near Stark. He was the fourth person to be executed May 15th under a death warrant signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida this year.
Hutchinson had no final statement, but it seemed to be tweeting to himself as the procedure began sporadically shaking just before 8pm. This process took just over 15 minutes.
His execution came shortly after the US Supreme Court refused a final appeal without comment.
Hutchinson has long claimed he is innocent, claiming that two unknown assailants committed murder under a US government conspiracy aimed at silencing his activities over allegations of illness and other issues of the Gulf War. Hutchinson served in the Army for eight years, some of which were elite rangers.
However, court records showed that on the night of the murder at Crestview, Hutchinson argued with his girlfriend, 32-year-old Renee Flaherty, and then stuffed his clothes and gun into a truck. Hutchinson goes to the bar and drinks a beer, where he tells the staff he is angry with Flaherty before suddenly leaving.
A while later, a male caller told the 911 operator that Flaherty shared with three children that he “just shot a family” from House Hutchinson: Jeffrey, 9, Amanda, 7, and Logan, 4. Everything was killed by a 12 gauge shotgun found at the kitchen counter. Hutchinson was stationed in the garage police, with phones and gunshot residue still in his hands, connected to the 911 center.
At the 2001 trial, Hutchinson’s defense was based on his claim that two unknown men came to the house and killed Flaherty and his children after they fought them. The ju judge discovered that Hutchinson was found guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Flaherty and three death sentences for the child.
Hutchinson had filed many failed claims, but many focused on mental health issues related to his Army services. In late April, his lawyers tried to delay his execution by claiming that Hutchinson was insane and therefore unable to die.
Bradford County Circuit Judge James Collow refused the argument in an order on April 27th.
“The court has determined that Hutchinson’s delusions are clearly wrong. Jeffrey Hutchinson is not lacking the mental ability to understand the reasons for the pending execution,” the judge wrote.
In a court application, Hutchinson’s lawyers said he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and delusions related to illnesses in the Gulf War, a series of health issues stemming from the 1990-1991 Iraq war, and his allegations that he was targeted for government surveillance.
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One of his lawyers, Chelsea Shirley, said Hutchinson had “decades of delusions of being executed to silence efforts to reveal government secrets. Two experts conclude that he is incapable of enforcement. Based on these facts, the court believes it is wrong to determine that Hutchinson is incapable of being executed.”
Florida Lethal Injection Protocol uses sedatives, paralytics and heart stopping drugs, according to the state Department of Corrections.
So far, 15 people have been executed in the US, including three in Florida, making Hutchinson fourth. Glen Rogers’ fifth Florida execution, convicted of murdering a woman in a motel in 1997, is scheduled for May 15th. Rogers was also convicted of murdering another woman in California, and it is believed that investigators killed others around the country.
Associated Press, by Curt Anderson
