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- Sep 30, 2011
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A former Navy crewman is set to be executed Wednesday in Georgia for killing a fellow sailor whose remains were found buried in two states.
Travis Hittson, 45, is scheduled to receive an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. 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 Hitton's request for clemency after a hearing Tuesday.
Hittson's lawyers have 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 contend 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.
Hittson's lawyers filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday afternoon.
Georgia to Execute Ex-Navy Crewman Who Killed Fellow Sailor
I don't even remember this incident. At all.
Travis Hittson, 45, is scheduled to receive an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. 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 Hitton's request for clemency after a hearing Tuesday.
Hittson's lawyers have 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 contend 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.
Hittson's lawyers filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday afternoon.
Georgia to Execute Ex-Navy Crewman Who Killed Fellow Sailor
I don't even remember this incident. At all.
