STARKE, Fla. (AP) — An Army combat veteran whose Gulf War experience triggered severe mental problems is scheduled to be executed Thursday in Florida for the shotgun killings of his girlfriend and her three young children in 1998.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Jeffrey Hutchinson is set to receive a lethal injection starting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison near Starke. The execution, if carried out, will be the fourth in Florida this year under death warrants signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, with a fifth execution planned for May 15.
Hutchinson, 62, has long claimed he is innocent and that two unknown assailants perpetrated the killings as part of a U.S. government conspiracy aimed at silencing him over his activism on claims of Gulf War illnesses and other issues affecting veterans. Hutchinson served eight years in the Army, part of it as an elite Ranger…