Jeffrey Hutchinson Execution

Jeffrey Hutchinson got mad at his girlfriend and murdered her and her three children:

On September 11, 1998, Hutchinson, a former army veteran who fought in the Gulf War, shot and killed his 32-year-old live-in girlfriend, Renee Flaherty, along with her three children: Geoffrey (aged nine), Amanda (aged seven), and Logan (aged four).

He tried to argue mitigation:

During his trial, Hutchinson claimed diminished responsibility due to alcohol intoxication and mental disorders like the Gulf War syndrome in his defense. 

Didn't work:

Nonetheless, he was found guilty of the mass murder and received three death sentences for the children's murders, as well as a life sentence for the murder of his girlfriend.

Hutchinson had years of appeals, including arguing mitigation for brain injury and claiming innocence. Fail. But it did extend his life considerably. 

Okay. So, we have another person whom you can see why people sentenced him to death. Nonetheless, there remain problems (Breyer dissenting) with executing people twenty-five years later. 

The grounds for executing decrease over time. There are problems with people spending decades on death row. Long sentences are a serious punishment. 

And, there is a good chance he had grounds to claim diminished capacity. Yes, the Supreme Court rejected final appeals connected to this claim. It still affects the balancing calculus on who should be executed. 

The effects of military service and/or the type of people service attracts will include some inclinations to serious violence. I can't say if it made a difference here. The burden of proof should be on the government since he can still be punished without executing him. Some vets argued  his case:

"He fought in some of the most dangerous missions during the Gulf War, operating behind enemy lines in the volatile Four Corners region where Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq meet," they continued. "He was exposed to repeated concussive blasts and deadly chemicals, including sarin nerve gas released during coalition bombings, leading to permanent brain damage and Gulf War Illness, a condition that was not fully recognized when he returned home."

This does not erase his guilt. He murdered a woman and three young children in an act of horrible violence. It does make him more than some monster. 

I do not see remarks, however, that it was dangerous to keep him in prison, which does happen in various cases. Executing him is a dubious act. 

Florida thought differently.  They had to wait a bit since the Supreme Court didn't manage to dispose of (without comment) his five (seriously) final appeals before the scheduled execution time.  

I know some people are aggravated by delays via litigation. Still, it is hard not to be somewhat impressed by the amount of (mostly pointless) verbiage that goes into all of those final appeals. 

The legal grounds might have been weak, but the appeals show that even here, involving a senseless murder of four people, there is more to the story. The story remains as a fifth person dies from his long-ago horrible act.