After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeals, Jeffrey Hutchinson was executed Thursday night at Florida State Prison for the 1998 murders of his girlfriend’s three children in Okaloosa County, according to the state Department of Corrections.
Hutchinson, 62, was pronounced dead at 8:14 p.m., with the execution carried out about two hours later than scheduled, the department said in a post on its website. The execution came after the Supreme Court issued orders Thursday evening rejecting attempts to spare Hutchinson.
As is common, the Supreme Court did not explain its reasons. Other courts also had rejected a series of appeals, including the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday turning down arguments that the execution should be blocked because Hutchinson was not mentally competent.
Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 31 signed a death warrant for Hutchinson, who was convicted in the murders of his girlfriend, Renee Flaherty, and her children, Geoffrey, Amanda and Logan Flaherty, in the home they shared in Crestview. Hutchinson was sentenced to death in the murders of the children and life in prison in the murder of Renee Flaherty.
In trying to prevent the execution, Hutchinson’s attorneys cited brain damage and cognitive impairment that Hutchinson suffered as a result of his service in the Army and in the Gulf War. That included suffering from a condition known as Gulf War Illness after being exposed to sarin gas.
As an example, a petition filed at the Florida Supreme Court argued it would violate the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment to execute Hutchinson because of “profound mental illness and brain damage resulting from his military service.”
But the Florida Supreme Court and a circuit judge said the issues about Hutchinson’s conditions linked to his military service had long been known.
Hutchinson was the fourth man executed in Florida this year. Also, DeSantis last month signed a death warrant for Glen Rogers, who was convicted in the 1995 robbery and murder of a woman in a Tampa motel room. Rogers is scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on May 15.
Attorneys for Rogers appealed to the Florida Supreme Court after Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco last week issued a 27-page decision turning down a series of arguments aimed at preventing the execution. That appeal is pending.
The other inmates put to death this year were Michael Tanzi, who was executed April 8 in the 2000 murder of a woman in Monroe County; Edward James, who was executed March 20 in the 1993 murder of a Seminole County woman and her granddaughter; and James Ford, who was executed Feb. 13 in the 1997 murders of a couple in Charlotte County.
–Jim Saunders, News Service of Florida
