Stark, Fla. (AP) – Army combat veteran who caused the Gulf War experience 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.
The enforcement comes shortly after the US Supreme Court refused to appeal without comment.
Hutchinson has long claimed he is innocent, claiming that two unknown assailants committed the murder under a US government conspiracy aimed at silence his activities on allegations involving veterans, including Gulf War disease. Hutchinson served in the Army for eight years, some of which were elite rangers.
However, court records show that on the night of his murder in Crestview, Florida, Hutchinson argued with his girlfriend, 32-year-old Renee Flaherty, who then stuffed clothes and guns 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 short time later, a male caller shared with the 911 operator “I just shot a family” from Hutchinson, where Flaherty shares three children, 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.
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 United States this year, including Hutchinson. The fifth Florida execution is scheduled for May 15th of Glen Rogers, who was convicted of killing a woman in a motel in 1997. Rogers was convicted of murdering another woman in California and is believed to have killed another person in the country by investigators.
