In a decision issued late yesterday, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed a lower court’s ruling that Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson is competent to be executed for the 1998 murders of his girlfriend and her three young children in Crestview. The ruling also denied Hutchinson’s motion for a stay of execution, paving the way for his scheduled execution at 6:00 p.m. today, May 1, 2025.
The opinion from the court details the horrific crime, in which Hutchinson, armed with a shotgun after drinking at a bar, broke into the home where his girlfriend Renee and her children Amanda (7), Logan (4), and Geoffrey (9) lived. He fatally shot Renee and the two younger children before shooting Geoffrey twice, once in the chest and once in the head. Hutchinson himself called 911 to report the crime.
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Following his arrest, Hutchinson offered a series of shifting accounts, including blaming masked intruders from Quantico, former friends, and Renee’s ex-husband. He was ultimately convicted on four counts of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for the murders of the three children and life in prison for Renee’s murder. His initial appeals and subsequent collateral attacks on his convictions and sentences were unsuccessful.
In recent months, Hutchinson filed further postconviction motions, which were denied. He then sent a letter to the Governor requesting to be declared “insane” under Florida law, leading to a temporary stay and the appointment of a three-person commission of psychiatrists to evaluate his sanity. The commission concluded that Hutchinson understood the nature and effect of the death penalty and why it was to be imposed upon him, leading the Governor to lift the stay.
READ: Two Decades After Heinous Murders, Florida Supreme Court Greenlights Hutchinson Execution
Hutchinson then filed a motion in circuit court arguing he was “insane” under Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, meaning he lacked understanding of the impending execution and the state’s reasons for it, citing Eighth Amendment protections against executing the insane.
The circuit court held an evidentiary hearing where Hutchinson’s legal team presented witnesses, including past and present counsel and mental health experts, who argued that Hutchinson’s belief in a government conspiracy against him prevented him from rationally understanding the true reasons for his execution. The state countered with its own experts, including two members of the Governor’s commission, who testified that Hutchinson did not suffer from Delusional Disorder or any other mental illness that would impair his understanding of the link between his crimes and the punishment.
The circuit court ultimately credited the state’s experts, finding Hutchinson competent to be executed. The Florida Supreme Court upheld this finding, stating that there was “competent, substantial evidence supporting the circuit court’s determination.” The court found no legal errors in the lower court’s application of the relevant legal standards, citing its own precedent and U.S. Supreme Court rulings.
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The Supreme Court specifically noted that the focus is on whether the prisoner has a “rational understanding” of why the state seeks to execute him, not on any particular diagnosis or memory. The court agreed with the circuit court’s finding that “there is no credible evidence that in his current mental state Mr. Hutchinson believes himself unable to die or that he is being executed for any reason other than the murders he was convicted of by a jury of his peers.”
While acknowledging the evidence presented by Hutchinson, the Supreme Court reiterated that it is not their role to “reassess the credibility of witnesses or reweigh the evidence.”
Hutchinson also challenged the circuit court’s denial of his motions for a continuance, a stay, and additional discovery. The Florida Supreme Court found no abuse of discretion in these rulings.
Justice Labarga dissented, noting the “procedural path unlike any in recent history” of the case and stating his belief that a stay would be beneficial to further consideration of the issues raised.
With the Florida Supreme Court’s decision, barring any last-minute intervention from federal courts, Jeffrey Glenn Hutchinson is scheduled to be executed later today for the brutal murders he committed over two decades ago.
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