Travis Hittson, 45, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 7 p.m. EST at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson in what would be the nation’s second execution this week and the seventh of the year.
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Georgia doesn’t announce exactly when the lethal drugs begin flowing, and the injection isn’t visible to observers. The lawyers wrote in a clemency petition that Hittson participated in Utterbeck’s murder only because he wanted to make Vollmer happy.
Legally, the board must give periodic reviews to inmates who are parole eligible.
Court documents show Hittson, then stationed in Pensacola, Florida, went with Utterbeck and fellow sailor Edward Vollmer to the home of Vollmer’s parents in Warner Robins, Georgia.
A lawyer for Hittson also argued in a court filing Monday that his client’s 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.
Lawyers for Hittson argued that he deserves mercy and is very remorseful for his actions. Vollmer stepped on Utterbeck’s hands and Hittson shot him in the head, prosecutors have said.
In addition to denying Hittson’s motion for a stay of execution, the state Supreme Court also denied his request to appeal a ruling Tuesday by the Butts County Superior Court. During the visit, Hittson beat Utterback with an aluminum baseball bat, then shot him in the head.
Their crewmates were shocked at Hittson’s confession to investigators about two months later, but no one was surprised Vollmer had been involved, according to some fellow crewmen quoted in the clemency application. Afterward, Hittson and Vollmer dismembered his body, using a kitchen steak knife and a hacksaw, according to court records.
Hittson was convicted of malice murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime and theft by taking. Another shipmate, Edward Paul Vollmer, also was charged with murder, but he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole as part of a plea bargain. When his parole was denied past year, the board said it would next consider his case in 2020.
Meanwhile, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles has decided that codefendant Vollmer won’t be considered for parole again until the year 2024, according to a board news release.
Travis Hittson did not request a last meal.
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The United States executed 28 people a year ago, the lowest number since 1991. The state executed five inmates last year, the most it has executed in a calendar year since 1987.
