STARK, Fla. (AP) – An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience caused serious mental problems is scheduled to be executed in Florida on Thursday due to the shotgun killing of his girlfriend and her three young children in 1998.
Except for a last-minute reprieve, Jeffrey Hutchinson is scheduled to receive a fatal injection at the Florida State Jail near Stark from 6pm Thursday. If the execution is done, Florida will be fourth under a death warrant signed by Gov. Ron de Santis this year, with a fifth execution planned for May 15th.
Hutchinson, 62, has long claimed he is innocent, claiming that two unknown assailants committed the murders as part of a US government conspiracy aimed at silencing his activities on allegations of Gulf War illnesses and other issues affecting veterans. Hutchinson served in the Army for eight years, some of which were elite rangers.
However, court records show that on the night of the murder in Crestview, Florida, Hutchinson argued with his girlfriend, 32-year-old Renee Flaherty, who 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 shared with Flaherty, which a 911 operator “I just shot a family” with three children from 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 a 2001 trial, Hutchinson was based on his defense on allegations that two unknown men came to the house and killed Flaherty and the children after he struggled. The ju judge discovered that Hutchinson was found guilty of four-degree first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Flaherty and three death sentences of a child.
Since then, Hutchinson has taken on many failed charms. In late April, his lawyers tried to delay his execution date by insisting that Hutchinson was insane and therefore unable to die.
Bradford County Circuit Judge James Collow refused to discuss the argument.
“The court has found that Jeffrey Hutchinson has no current mental illness,” Corow said in an order on April 27th. “The court finds that Hutchinson’s delusions are clearly incorrect. Jeffrey Hutchinson is not lacking the mental ability to understand the reasons for the pending execution.”
In his 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 claims that he was targeted in government investigations.
One of his lawyers, Chelsea Shirley, said Hutchinson “has had decades of delusions in which he was executed to silence efforts to reveal government secrets. The two experts believe that it is wrong to decide that the court has not been executed based on these facts, but that we are not surprised.”
Florida Lethal Injection Protocol uses sedatives, paralytics and heart stopping drugs, according to the state Department of Corrections.
So far, 14 people have been executed in the United States, including three in Florida, making Hutchinson fourth. 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 is also believed to have been convicted of murdering another woman in California and killed others in the country by investigators.
