Georgia executes former Navy crewman

[webfact]

Georgia executes ex-Navy crewman who killed fellow sailor
KATE BRUMBACK, Associated Press

JACKSON, Georgia (AP) — A former Navy crewman was executed Wednesday in Georgia for killing a fellow sailor whose remains were found buried in two states.

Travis Hittson, 45, was pronounced dead at 8:14 p.m. after receiving an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the April 1992 killing of Conway Utterbeck.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, rejected Hittson's request for clemency after a hearing Tuesday.

Hittson's lawyers had said he was mistreated and neglected as a child and constantly craved the approval of others. That, they said, combined with alcoholism and relatively low intelligence, made it easy for his direct supervisor in the Navy, Edward Vollmer, to manipulate him into killing Utterbeck.

In a legal filing, they contended his constitutional rights were violated during sentencing when a judge allowed a state psychologist who had examined Hittson to recount damaging statements Hittson had made about Utterbeck.

State lawyers said those arguments have previously been raised and rejected by the courts and are procedurally barred.

A Butts County judge on Tuesday rejected Hittson's challenge, and his attorneys appealed to the state Supreme Court. On Wednesday, the state's high court rejected Hittson's appeal and denied a stay of execution.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal Wednesday evening.

Hittson, Utterbeck and Vollmer were stationed in Pensacola, Florida, in April 1992 when they went to Vollmer's parents' home in Warner Robins in central Georgia for a weekend.

Hittson told investigators he and Vollmer went out drinking the second night they were there, leaving Utterbeck at the house. As they were driving back to the house, Vollmer told Hittson that Utterbeck planned to kill them both and that they needed to "get him" first, according to court filings.

When they reached the house, where Utterbeck was sleeping in a recliner, Vollmer put on a bulletproof vest and took a sawed-off shotgun and a handgun from his car and gave Hittson an aluminum baseball bat. On Vollmer's instructions, Hittson hit Utterbeck several times in the head with the bat and then dragged him into the kitchen where Vollmer was waiting, according to court filings. Vollmer stepped on Utterbeck's hand and Hittson shot him in the head, according to court filings.

Vollmer said they needed to cut up Utterbeck's body to get rid of the evidence, according to court filings. Hittson told investigators he began to cut the body with a hacksaw but he became sick and Vollmer finished dismembering the body, according to court filings.

They buried Utterbeck's torso in Houston County in central Georgia and brought the rest of the remains back to Pensacola and buried them there.

When investigators began questioning Utterbeck's shipmates a couple of months later, Hittson confessed and also implicated Vollmer, according to court filings. He led investigators to Utterbeck's remains and other crime scene evidence.

Hittson was convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and theft by taking. He was sentenced to death for the malice murder conviction.

Vollmer reached a plea deal and is serving a life sentence. He was denied parole in 1999 and again last year. Reconsideration of his case had been set for 2020, but based on information offered at Hittson's clemency hearing, the parole board on Wednesday reset that for 2024. Eight years is the maximum delay between consideration dates allowed by board rules.

Hittson was the second person executed in Georgia this year. The state executed five inmates last year, the most it has executed in a calendar year since 1987.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-02-18

[ronrat]

Seems the other critter should have joined him.

[crowbait]

Imprison a man for 24 years under sentence of death and then take him out and judicially murder him! I'm sure that is a good basic definition of a cruel and unnatural punishment if ever there was one.

Americans certainly understand the meaning of public vengeance which in reality belongs to the Lord (according to the Bible of the Christian religion they profess to follow as a nation).

[Jonmarleesco]

'He [Vollmer] was denied parole ... last year. Reconsideration of his case had been set for 2020, but ... the parole board on Wednesday reset that for 2024. Eight years is the maximum delay between consideration dates allowed by board rules.' Someone has miscounted, then.

[nottocus]

Fantastic news to wake up to on this Friday morning. Really put a spring in my step for the gets of the day.

[manarak]

murderers killing others without a real motive, just for fun, are the worst. they need to be eliminated. I just wonder why they wait for so long.

[Langsuan Man]

Unfortunately the death penalty is the only foolproof way to insure that the offender will never be able to commit the crime again

As far as those who complain that the length of time between conviction and execution is too long and that is the "cruel and unusual punishment" just remember the convicted killer was the one who dragged out the process with all their appeals

[NeverSure]

^^^ Yeah, I'll bet the victim would have liked at least another 24 years of life.

[hawker9000]

Imprison a man for 24 years under sentence of death and then take him out and judicially murder him! I'm sure that is a good basic definition of a cruel and unnatural punishment if ever there was one.

Americans certainly understand the meaning of public vengeance which in reality belongs to the Lord (according to the Bible of the Christian religion they profess to follow as a nation).[/quote

Pretty good job loading that up with the usual nonsense. Bleeding hearts insist on allowing a condemned monster every conceivable delay and legal obstruction, and then get all weepy about how long the scumbag spends on death row. And then there's this constant squealing over any public expression of religion whatsoever, but whenever execution time rolls around, it's suddenly a Christian country again. Too funny. You really do need to work on your game, which is unbelievably lame.

Oh and you think the imprisonment terminating in lethal injection is cruel & unusual? Really? I'll never understand the indecency of sympathizing with the hideously vicious murderers in these cases and complete disregard for the victims. How can anyone read the details of the CRIME that was committed, and then complain that jail & the lethal injection were what was "cruel & unusual"!!! Just bizarre!

[crowbait]

Imprison a man for 24 years under sentence of death and then take him out and judicially murder him! I'm sure that is a good basic definition of a cruel and unnatural punishment if ever there was one.
Americans certainly understand the meaning of public vengeance which in reality belongs to the Lord (according to the Bible of the Christian religion they profess to follow as a nation).[/quote


Pretty good job loading that up with the usual nonsense. Bleeding hearts insist on allowing a condemned monster every conceivable delay and legal obstruction, and then get all weepy about how long the scumbag spends on death row. And then there's this constant squealing over any public expression of religion whatsoever, but whenever execution time rolls around, it's suddenly a Christian country again. Too funny. You really do need to work on your game, which is unbelievably lame.

Oh and you think the imprisonment terminating in lethal injection is cruel & unusual? Really? I'll never understand the indecency of sympathizing with the hideously vicious murderers in these cases and complete disregard for the victims. How can anyone read the details of the CRIME that was committed, and then complain that jail & the lethal injection were what was "cruel & unusual"!!! Just bizarre!

Calm down, old son. Your blood pressure will go through the roof. Firstly, I am not in sympathy with the convicted ( although he is probably not the same person he was 25 years ago - I certainly am not). Secondly, I do indeed have the greatest regard for the victim's who are probably realising (as I have) that vengeance does not help feelings of grief.
My opposition to the death penalty is based on the effect it has on society, debasing human life and degrading values such as charity, forgiveness and empathy for the human condition. Study after study have shown that capital punishment has absolutely no deterrent effect and that it's only purpose is to serve as public vengeance - not a nice place for a (so called) civilised society to be in.

[Langsuan Man]

It sure has a deterrent effect on the perpetrator, fortunately a final one

[F430murci]

Where is the death penalty US court system is racist brigade? Oops, this low life was white, but alas we will get the long distance complainers wrapped up in something that has no impact on them or their daily life.

[hawker9000]

Imprison a man for 24 years under sentence of death and then take him out and judicially murder him! I'm sure that is a good basic definition of a cruel and unnatural punishment if ever there was one.
Americans certainly understand the meaning of public vengeance which in reality belongs to the Lord (according to the Bible of the Christian religion they profess to follow as a nation).[/quote


Pretty good job loading that up with the usual nonsense. Bleeding hearts insist on allowing a condemned monster every conceivable delay and legal obstruction, and then get all weepy about how long the scumbag spends on death row. And then there's this constant squealing over any public expression of religion whatsoever, but whenever execution time rolls around, it's suddenly a Christian country again. Too funny. You really do need to work on your game, which is unbelievably lame.

Oh and you think the imprisonment terminating in lethal injection is cruel & unusual? Really? I'll never understand the indecency of sympathizing with the hideously vicious murderers in these cases and complete disregard for the victims. How can anyone read the details of the CRIME that was committed, and then complain that jail & the lethal injection were what was "cruel & unusual"!!! Just bizarre!

Calm down, old son. Your blood pressure will go through the roof. Firstly, I am not in sympathy with the convicted ( although he is probably not the same person he was 25 years ago - I certainly am not). Secondly, I do indeed have the greatest regard for the victim's who are probably realising (as I have) that vengeance does not help feelings of grief.
My opposition to the death penalty is based on the effect it has on society, debasing human life and degrading values such as charity, forgiveness and empathy for the human condition. Study after study have shown that capital punishment has absolutely no deterrent effect and that it's only purpose is to serve as public vengeance - not a nice place for a (so called) civilised society to be in.

Get a grip old son. No "study" can possibly measure deterrent effect since you can't possibly know who was successfully deterred (duh - because having been deterred they didn't murder, now did they?), much less crawl inside their heads. Furthermore, an executed murderer is definitely NOT going to murder again, in OR out of prison, old son. I wonder how corrections officers feel about the idea of riding herd day in & day out, on lifers with absolutely nothing to lose, old son. A civilised society is not one where criminals with a demonstrated propensity to kill are allowed to repeat their atrocities again. And the idea that there is no deterrent effect is purely BS for the soft-headed that will believe most anything a pointy-headed academic in a white coat cares to cast before them, old son.

ALL criminal punishment, and civil penalties too for that matter, are about settling debts, debts to society in the former case, or to other individuals in the latter case -- that is, "vengeance", as you like to so pejoratively put it. Unless you object to the entire justice system, you're just pretending that your problem is with "vengeance" when it's really just about the severity of this particular penalty. But, old son, you think you score more points by throwing around hyperbolic rhetoric. It's a tired trick and doesn't sell. Sort of like condescension, old son...

[crowbait]

There you go with the blood pressure thing again trotting out the same-old, tired-old hang 'em, shoot 'em, flog 'em rhetoric that is so boring. The USA imprisons huge numbers and hands down large numbers of death sentences without seeming to affect crime rates. Doesn't that strike you that it's time to consider alternatives?

[hawker9000]

There you go with the blood pressure thing again trotting out the same-old, tired-old hang 'em, shoot 'em, flog 'em rhetoric that is so boring. The USA imprisons huge numbers and hands down large numbers of death sentences without seeming to affect crime rates. Doesn't that strike you that it's time to consider alternatives?

Lol. If there were even a grain of truth to it. then it might be time ... 'Depressing that you find violent crime, and the consequences, "boring". What a sheltered, ego-centric life you must lead.

Decency completely escapes some.

[crowbait]

You really should try to be accurate, what I said was I found your your diatribe in defence of the indefensible so predictable it was utterly boring. Please present any evidence you can find to show that the USA's criminal punishment regimes have any deterrent effect on the crime rate.