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.

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. 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.”