Florida Court Refuses to Stop Execution for Mentally Ill Veteran Jeffrey Hutchinson

Jeffrey Hutchinson is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Florida on May 1, 2025, despite a long­stand­ing men­tal ill­ness and his attorney’s claim that he is men­tal­ly incom­pe­tent. 

On April 24, 2025, attor­neys for the Gulf War vet­er­an filed a motion in Bradford County Circuit Court seek­ing a stay of his sched­uled exe­cu­tion and request­ing an evi­den­tiary hear­ing to assess their client’s com­pe­ten­cy. Mr. Hutchinson has suf­fered from a delu­sion­al dis­or­der for decades, with a per­sis­tent delu­sion that his exe­cu­tion is meant to silence his expo­sure of gov­ern­ment secrets, includ­ing the iden­ti­ty of the actu­al per­pe­tra­tors in his case. 

Experts who eval­u­at­ed him in ear­ly April 2025 deter­mined he lacks a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of Florida’s plan to exe­cute him, ren­der­ing him incom­pe­tent for exe­cu­tion. Despite this find­ing, experts for the state tes­ti­fied that they did not agree with defense expert con­clu­sions and Judge James M. Colaw ulti­mate­ly found Mr. Hutchinson ​“sane and com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed” after more than ten hours of expert testimony.

Since the rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty in Florida in 1976, coun­sel for sev­er­al pris­on­ers have chal­lenged their clients’ com­pe­ten­cy for exe­cu­tion; none have been successful. 

Mr. Hutchinson’s mil­i­tary ser­vice spanned over a decade in the U.S. Army, dur­ing which his Gulf War deploy­ment exposed him to sarin gas and mul­ti­ple blast injuries, result­ing in Gulf War Illness (GWI) with per­ma­nent neu­ro­log­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal dam­age. 

After return­ing from deploy­ment, his para­noia inten­si­fied into a belief that gov­ern­ment agents were tar­get­ing him for his clas­si­fied knowl­edge. Mr. Hutchinson’s para­noia severe­ly impact­ed his civil­ian life and per­son­al rela­tion­ships. For near­ly 30 years, he has main­tained his inno­cence, insist­ing oth­ers com­mit­ted his crimes to sup­press his advo­ca­cy for Gulf War vet­er­ans suf­fer­ing from GWI. 

Mr. Hutchinson believes that with his sched­uled exe­cu­tion date, the gov­ern­ment will exe­cute an inno­cent per­son to hide longstanding coverups.

In response to the request from Mr. Hutchinson’s coun­sel, the cir­cuit court sched­uled a hear­ing for April 25 to hear claims relat­ed to his com­pe­ten­cy. Several indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing Mr. Hutchinson’s for­mer mit­i­ga­tion spe­cial­ist, inves­ti­ga­tors, and pri­or attor­neys told the court they believe that his fixed delu­sions are ​“firm” and ​“long-stand­ing,” and have not changed in the mul­ti­ple decades they have known him. 

Dan Ashton, an inves­ti­ga­tor for Mr. Hutchinson’s fed­er­al defend­ers, tes­ti­fied that Mr. Hutchinson viewed any hap­pen­ings in his case — includ­ing a judge who died by sui­cide — as part of a con­spir­a­cy against him.

Board-cer­ti­fied psy­chol­o­gist Dr. Barry Crown tes­ti­fied about his two eval­u­a­tions of Mr. Hutchinson dur­ing the last six months. Dr. Crown iden­ti­fied symp­toms of PTSD and organ­ic brain dam­age that impair Mr. Hutchinson’s rea­son­ing, judg­ment, crit­i­cal think­ing, and mem­o­ry. 

Dr. Crown also tes­ti­fied that Mr. Hutchinson suf­fers from Delusional Disorder and that while Mr. Hutchinson under­stands he is going to be exe­cut­ed, he lacks a ratio­nal under­stand­ing of why the state is doing so. 

Dr. Bhusan Agharkar, a board-cer­ti­fied psy­chi­a­trist, also tes­ti­fied for the defense, telling the court about Mr. Hutchinson’s fixed delu­sion about a gov­ern­ment con­spir­a­cy. Dr. Agharkar agreed that Mr. Hutchinson suf­fers from Delusional Disorder, and while he under­stands he will be exe­cut­ed, his long-stand­ing delu­sion impedes his ratio­nal under­stand­ing of the rea­son for his execution.

Having rep­re­sent­ed Mr. Hutchinson for a decade and based upon the recent reports find­ing him to be incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed, it is appro­pri­ate to request a stay of exe­cu­tion on his behalf…Executing an incom­pe­tent and severe­ly men­tal­ly wound­ed com­bat vet­er­an vio­lates the U.S. Constitution.

— Sean T. Gunn, Attorney for Jeffrey Hutchinson

The state pre­sent­ed evi­dence from sev­er­al experts who con­tra­dict­ed the find­ings of the defense experts.

Dr. Tonia Werner, a foren­sic psy­chi­a­trist, tes­ti­fied that she did not believe Mr. Hutchinson actu­al­ly believed the delu­sions, rather, his state­ments are an attempt­ed defense to the mur­ders. 

RELATED | Florida Supreme Court denies appeal for Jeffrey Hutchinson, convicted of quadruple murder

Another mem­ber of the Governor’s Commission, Dr. Wade Myers, told the court he saw ​“no evi­dence” that Mr. Hutchinson ever had a fixed delu­sion and did not believe he is suf­fer­ing from men­tal ill­ness. He acknowl­edged that Mr. Hutchinson had PTSD symp­toms, but ​“like most cas­es,” these symp­toms ​“improve[d] over time.”

In an opin­ion fol­low­ing the evi­den­tiary hear­ing Judge Colaw wrote, ​“Mr. Hutchinson has not met his bur­den of prov­ing by clear and con­vinc­ing evi­dence that he is present­ly insane or incom­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed.” Judge Colaw deter­mined the opin­ions and tes­ti­mo­ny of the Governor’s Commission mem­bers were ​“cred­i­ble and com­pelling,” writ­ing ​“there is no cred­i­ble evi­dence that Mr. Hutchinson does not under­stand what is tak­ing place and why it is tak­ing place.” 

Following the issuance of Judge Colaw’s opin­ion, coun­sel for Jeffrey Hutchinson said, “…we believe the court was wrong to find Mr. Hutchinson com­pe­tent to be exe­cut­ed, but we are not sur­prised. These pro­ceed­ings have been a far cry from a full and fair hear­ing as required by due process. We will con­tin­ue to lit­i­gate the issues and seek a stay of Mr. Hutchinson’s execution.”

Source: Death Penalty Information Center, Hayley Bedard, April 29, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde