Jeff Hutchinson is not competent to be executed

For Immediate Release: April 24, 2025

Contact: Jon Crane, [email protected]

New Filing: Gulf War Veteran With Delusional Disorder Seeks Stay of May 1 Execution to Show he is Incompetent to be Executed

Stay is Necessary to Present Complete Evidence that Jeffrey Hutchinson is Not Competent for Execution

(Bradford County, FL, Thursday, April 24, 2025) Today, attorneys for Jeffrey Hutchinson, a Gulf War veteran facing execution on May 1, 2025, filed a motion in Bradford County circuit court seeking a stay of execution and a meaningful evidentiary hearing to determine whether he is competent to be executed. Mr. Hutchinson has long suffered from a delusional disorder and has a decades-long fixed delusion that he is being executed to silence his efforts to expose government secrets, including the truth about who the actual killers in his case were. Recent expert evaluations (which can be accessed here and here) determined that he lacks a rational understanding of why Florida plans to execute him and thus is not competent to be executed.

Mr. Hutchinson served in the U.S. Army for more than a decade. He deployed to the front lines during the Gulf War, where he was exposed to sarin gas and repeated blast injuries. As a result, he developed Gulf War Illness (“GWI”) and suffered permanent neurological and psychological damage. But his physical impairments were just the beginning. After his return from the Gulf, Mr. Hutchinson became increasingly paranoid, suspecting government operatives were persecuting him for his classified knowledge. His paranoia deeply affected his civilian life and relationships with others.

For over 25 years, he has maintained the fixed belief that he is innocent. He is adamant that his crimes were committed by someone other than him in an effort to silence his advocacy for other Gulf War veterans suffering from GWI. But now, with a set execution date, Mr. Hutchinson believes the government is executing an innocent man to conceal their decades-long coverups and wrongdoings.

In today’s filings, attorneys urge the court to grant a stay of execution so evidence of Mr. Hutchinson’s incompetence for execution can be meaningfully reviewed. At the State’s urging, the court has set the matter for an expedited hearing, giving attorneys less than 24 hours’ notice to prepare.

The hearing is scheduled for Friday, April 25, 2025, at 9:00 AM, in the Bradford County circuit court before Judge James M. Colaw. Because competency to be executed must be determined at the time an execution warrant is signed, Mr. Hutchinson’s lawyers argue an adequate and comprehensive hearing is needed so the court can review expert medical evaluations and consider the full extent of Mr. Hutchinson’s delusional belief system.

They explain that Governor DeSantis’s brief stay of execution and appointment of hand-selected experts who conducted an inadequate evaluation, resulting in a hasty determination that Mr. Hutchinson is competent, fails to ensure Mr. Hutchinson is not executed in violation of the Constitution.

“Having represented Mr. Hutchinson for a decade and based upon the recent reports finding him to be incompetent to be executed, it is appropriate to request a stay of execution on his behalf,” said Sean T. Gunn, one of Mr. Hutchinson’s attorneys. “Executing an incompetent and severely mentally wounded combat veteran violates the U.S. Constitution.”

In a recent report submitted to the court, Dr. Bhushan Agharkar, a board-certified forensic psychiatrist, found that Mr. Hutchinson “lacks a rational understanding of the reason for his impending execution.” Dr. Agharkar concluded that “Mr. Hutchinson does not have the ability to rationally understand why the government is seeking to execute him, nor the causal relationship between the crime and punishment to be imposed.” Dr. Agharkar determined that Mr. Hutchinson’s fixed belief that he is innocent, and that the Government is punishing him for a reason other than the crime he is charged with, does not equate to a rational understanding.

The U.S. Constitution prohibits executing anyone who lacks a rational understanding of why he is being put to death, as the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly held. Despite the clear and compelling evidence that Mr. Hutchinson is incompetent under this standard, the state is moving forward with his execution.

The limitation of the state procedural rules aside, Florida’s competency standard presents a larger problem. In direct conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court’s “rational understanding” requirement, articulated in cases like 2007’s Panetti v. Quarterman and 2019’s Madison v. Alabama, Florida’s approach essentially asks only whether the prisoner knows why the State wants to execute him, regardless of whether he believes it. That approach, firmly rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court, fails to protect people with a severely delusional belief system from being executed in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

Today’s motion explains: “Mr. Hutchinson’s insanity places him outside of the class of individuals eligible to be executed because the United States Supreme Court has held that the Eighth Amendment “prohibits the execution of a prisoner whose mental illness prevents him from ‘rationally understanding’ why the State seeks to impose that punishment.” (p. 13)

The motion asks the court to grant a stay of execution so that the court can hear from medical experts, review Mr. Hutchinson’s long-documented history of brain injury and trauma and evaluate his current mental state in accordance with constitutional standards.

For more information or to speak to an attorney for Mr. Hutchinson, please contact Jon Crane at: [email protected].