In Starke, Florida, on Thursday evening, a former Army combat veteran was executed for the brutal 1998 murders of his girlfriend and her three young children. Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, received a lethal injection at the Florida State Prison, marking the fourth execution this year overseen by Governor Ron DeSantis, with another scheduled for May 15.
Hutchinson, a Gulf War veteran who allegedly developed severe mental health issues following his service, did not make a final statement but was observed mumbling as the execution commenced around 8 p.m. His body showed signs of distress with leg shaking and spasms, but he soon became still, with the entire process taking over 15 minutes. This came after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a last-minute appeal without issuing any comments.
Despite his repeated statements of innocence, suggesting that the murders were carried out by unknown assailants in connection with an elaborate U.S. government conspiracy to silence him over allegations regarding Gulf War illnesses, court evidence told a different story. Jeffrey Hutchinson, who served eight years in the Army including time as a Ranger, was implicated through records indicating an altercation with his girlfriend, 32-year-old Renee Flaherty, the night of the killings in Crestview. After the argument, he was seen packing clothes and guns into a truck before heading to a bar. Later, a 911 call was received from their house where Hutchinson is reported to have claimed, “I just shot my family,” before being found by police with gunshot residue on his hands and a phone still connected to emergency services. The gruesome scene involved Flaherty and her children, 9-year-old Geoffrey, 7-year-old Amanda, and 4-year-old Logan, all killed with a shotgun.
Renee Flaherty’s brother, Darran Johnson, addressed the closure the execution provided, despite the persistent grief for their family’s loss. He remarked, “Not a day goes by that we don’t think about the loved ones that were taken from us.”
In Hutchinson’s 2001 trial, his defense argued that two unidentified men carried out the murders, but a jury found him guilty of four counts of first-degree murder, granting him life imprisonment for Flaherty’s death and death sentences for the children’s murder. His ongoing appeals, citing mental health issues linked to his military service, were consistently unsuccessful. Just before his execution, Hutchinson’s lawyers argued that his mental state rendered him unfit for execution, a claim dismissed on April 27 by Bradford County Circuit Judge James Colaw, who affirmed Hutchinson’s understanding of the situation.
Court documents indicated Hutchinson suffered from Gulf War Illness, PTSD, and paranoia linked to his belief of government surveillance. Florida utilizes a three-drug protocol for lethal injections, consisting of a sedative, a paralytic, and a drug to stop the heart, according to their Department of Corrections.
Hutchinson’s execution adds to the 15 already executed in the U.S. this year. Meanwhile, Florida’s scheduled fifth execution this year on May 15 concerns Glen Rogers, convicted of a 1997 motel murder and another homicide in California, with suspicions of further murders nationwide.