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Thread: Travis Clinton Hittson - Georgia Execution - February 17, 2016

  1. #11
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    It should also be noted that the Eleventh Circuit panel was split two to one.

  2. #12
    Senior Member CnCP Addict johncocacola's Avatar
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    Hittson's petition for rehearing en banc was denied by the 11th Circuit on September 25, 2014.

    http://www.supremecourt.gov/search.a...es/14-8589.htm

  3. #13
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    TRAVIS CLINTON HITTSON v. BRUCE CHATMAN, WARDEN

    In today's United States Supreme Court opinions, Hittson's petition for certiorari was DENIED with written order reasoning there is an en banc petition before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  4. #14
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    Justices Decline to Hear Death Row Habeas Case

    By DAN MCCUE

    (CN) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a habeas appeal by a death row inmate in Georgia convicted of killing and dismembering a U.S. Navy shipmate.

    In April 1992, Travis Clinton Hittson and Edward Vollmer, both enlisted men in the U.S. Navy serving on the Pensacola, Fla.-based training carrier Forrestal, killed, mutilated and dismembered their shipmate, Conway Utterbeck.

    The murder occurred after Hittson and Vollmer, who were staying at Vollmer's parents house with Utterbeck, went out for a night of drinking and then decided the other man was "out to get them."

    According to court documents, Hittson and Vollmer beat Utterbeck with an aluminum baseball back, dragged him into the kitchen, then shot the 21-year-old point blank in the head as he begged for his life.

    Hittson and Vollmer then went to a nearby Waffle House to get something to eat, before finally returning to the murder scene and dismembering Utterbeck with a serrated steak knife and a hacksaw.

    Hittson confessed to the crime, and in February 1993, he was convicted of murder in the Houston County, Ga. Superior Court.

    During the penalty phase of his trial, Hittson tried to show that Vollmer planned the murder and had manipulated him into helping to carry it out. The jury was not persuaded and returned an unanimous death sentence, finding the murder "was outrageously or wantonly vile, horrible, or inhuman."

    After Hittson exhausted his direct appeal and collateral attack remedies in the Georgia courts, he petitioned the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia for a writ of habeas corpus.

    In his petition, Hittson presented twenty separate claims for relief. These included claims that the trial court erred in letting a psychologist to testify about statements Hittson made during a court-ordered mental-health examination; that his attorneys failed to properly present expert testimony about his background and mental condition; and that the state withheld exculpatory evidence, thereby violating his due process rights.

    The district court found that Hittson was entitled to habeas relief from his death sentence based on the state psychologist's testimony. The state appealed, acknowledging that admission of the testimony was a mistake, but arguing that it was a harmless error. Hittson also cross-appealed the district court's denial of some of his penalty phase challenges.

    On review, the 11th Circuit reversed the district court's grant of habeas relief setting aside Hittson's death sentence based on the state psychologist's testimony, affirmed the lower court's denial of several of Hittson's other claims, and ruled the death row inmate cannot now raise new claims he failed to litigate in state court.

    The majority of justices did not explain their rationale for rejecting the case, but in a concurring opinion in Justice Elena Kagan joined, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said consideration of the case raised an important point for clarification -- how federal courts consider why a state court has rejected a state prisoner's federal claims.

    "The Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 directs a federal habeas court to train its attention on the particular reasons - both legal and factual -- why state courts rejected a state prisoner's federal claims," Ginsburg wrote.

    "Only if the state court's decision 'was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law' or 'was based on an unreasonable determination of facts in light of the evidence presented,' may a federal court grant habeas relief premised on a federal claim previously adjudicated on the merits in state court," she said.

    This, Ginsburg continued, is easy to do when the state court issues an opinion explaining its decision; not so much when it doesn't.

    She goes on to explain that with its decision in Ylst v. Nunnemaker, high court outlined how federal courts should deal with the more-challenging circumstance.

    In this case, the Georgia Supreme Court denied - without explanation - a certificate of probable cause to appeal.

    But the 11th Circuit declined to apply Ylst, instead believing that a more recent Supreme Court decision, Harrington v. Richter, superseded it.

    "With no reasoned opinion to look through to, the Court had no occasion to cast doubt on Ylst," Ginsburg wrote. "On the contrary, the Court cited Ylst approvingly in Richter ... and did so again two years later in Johnson v. Williams.

    From Ginsburg's perspective, the 11th Circuit believed Richter superseded Ylst and required the appeals court to hypothesize reasons that might have supported the state court's unexplained order.

    "But Richter makes clear that where the state court's real reasons can be ascertained, the Ylst analysis can and should be based on the actual 'arguments or theories that supported the ... state court's decision,'" the justice wrote.

    "In short, Richter instructs that federal habeas courts should continue to 'look though' even nondiscretionary adjudications to determine whether a claim was procedurally defaulted. There is no reason not to 'look through' such adjudications, as well, to determine the particular reasons why the state court rejected the claim on the merits," Ginsburg said.

    The justice noted that an en banc rehearing on the petition raising the Ylst issue is currently pending before the 11th Circuit. "That petition affords the 11th Circuit an opportunity to correct its error without the need for this court to intervene," she said.

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/0...abeas-case.htm

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
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    Georgia set execution of former sailor for Feb. 17

    On Monday, a Houston County judge signed the execution warrant for former sailor Travis Hitton for murdering and dismembering a fellow shipmate from the USS Forrestal, an aircraft carrier based in Pensacola, Fla.

    The warrant says he should be executed between noon on Feb. 17 and noon on Feb. 24. The Department of Corrections sets the specific time and usually the agency chooses 7 p.m. on the first day of the window, which would be Feb. 17.

    On Tuesday at 7 p.m. Georgia is scheduled to execute Brandon Astor Jones for the 1979 murder of the manager of a Cobb County Tenneco convenience station and gas station.

    Hittson was 21 years old in 1992 when he and another sailor visiting Houston County killed Petty Officer Edward Vollmer.

    Vollmer had invited Hittson and Conway Utterbeck to go with him to his parents’ home in Warner Robins for the first weekend in April in 1992.

    They spent most of that Saturday hanging out in the house — Vollmer’s parents were out of town – until Hittson and Vollmer decided that evening to hit the bars.

    As the two were headed back to the Vollmer house, Vollmer told Hittson that Utterbeck had a hit list with their names on it and he was “going to get us.” Vollmer said they needed to kill Utterbeck before he could kill them.

    When they pulled into the driveway. Vollmer put on a bulletproof vest and then a long trench coat. Vollmer took out of the car a sawed-off shotgun and a .22-caliber hand gun for himself and gave Hittson an aluminum bat.

    Utterbeck was asleep in a lounge chair when Hittson hit him in the head. As Utterbeck begged for his life, Hittson and Vollmer shot him.

    They cut up his body, burying some parts in Houston County and taking others with them back to Pensacola.

    A logger found Utterbeck’s torso buried in Houston County. Almost two months after his death, Navy investigators linked Hittson and Vollmer to Utterbeck’s disappearance and his murder.

    Hittson eventually told detectives he and Vollmer murdered and dismembered Utterbeck. His recorded confession was played for the jury during the punishment phase of his trial.

    Vollmer reached a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to life in prison.

    http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local...-feb-17/nqHBM/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. #16
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Death row inmate who killed sailor pleads for clemency

    By Bill Rankin
    The Atlanta Journal Constitution

    Lawyers for an inmate scheduled to be executed Wednesday are asking the state parole board to grant him clemency, saying Travis Hittson is extremely remorseful for what he did, has had an exemplary prison record and was manipulated to commit the murder by a co-defendant who may one day be paroled.

    After Hittson and fellow sailor Edward Vollmer killed a third sailor in 1992, they cut up the body and and buried the remains in different places. Hittson’s clemency petition says Vollmer exercised “unnatural dominance and control” over him and manipulated him into killing Conway Utterbeck.

    Hittson’s petition was “declassified” Friday by the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which will meet Tuesday to consider Hittson’s plea.

    “The community of men who served alongside both Mr. Hittson and Conway Utterbeck in the Navy believe that Travis Hittson is deserving of mercy, as do others, including jurors who were charged with determining Mr. Hittson’s punishment,” the filing said.

    “Neither Mr. Hittson nor those who wish to speak on his behalf have shut their eyes to his guilt,” it said. “Mr. Hittson committed an appalling act; an act which took the life of Conway Utterbeck and harmed his family in profound and irreparable ways. Those who know Mr. Hittson, however – even law enforcement personnel who knew him only long enough to hear him confess and assist in the investigation of this crime – are united in their conviction that he is remorseful and would never have committed this terrible crime absent the deliberate manipulation of his codefendant and naval superior, Edward Vollmer.”

    The petition was prepared by Art Cody, a retired Navy captain who is legal director of the Veterans Defense Program, and Kirsten Andrea Salchow of the Georgia Resource Center.

    In the spring of 1992, Vollmer, Hittson and Utterbeck were sailors aboad the USS Forrestal, an aircraft carrier based in Pensacola. They were all assigned to the engineering department, and Vollmer was Hittson’s lead petty officer.

    On April 3, 1992, Vollmer invited Hittson and Utterbeck to come with him to his parents’ home in Warner Robins for the weekend. Vollmer’s parents were out of town.

    That Saturday evening, Vollmer and Hittson went out drinking, leaving Utterbeck at the house. On the drive back, according to court records, Vollmer told Hittson that Utterbeck was plotting to kill them and for that reason they needed to kill him first. Vollmer retrieved a handgun from his car and handed Hittson a baseball bat and told him to go inside and hit Utterbeck and incapacitate him.

    When they arrived, Utterbeck was asleep on a recliner and Hittson struck him repeatedly, court records say. The two men then dragged Utterbeck into the kitchen, where Vollmer gave Hittson the handgun and stepped on Utterbeck’s hand to keep him from struggling. Hittson then shot Utterbeck in the forehead, killing him.

    Afterward, at Vollmer’s direction, Hittson began sawing off Utterbeck’s hands and head, apparently so police could not identify the body, court records say. But Hittson became ill and had to stop, and Vollmer finished the job.

    They disposed of Utterbeck’s torso nearby and put his other body parts in shallow graves after they returned to Pensacola. A logging crew found Utterbeck’s torso in June 1992, leading authorities to Hittson. He ultimately confessed and showed investigators where the other body parts and evidence were located.

    The clemency petition portrays Hittson as a kind, awkward and naïve young man who was always trying to please others. He also had become ravaged by a drinking problem.

    The petition cites Hittson’s former Navy colleagues who said that once Vollmer became Hittson’s superior, he began to manipulate him. Vollmer, who was abusive and controlling, ultimately got Hittson to help him carry out a murder, the petition said.

    “Mr. Hittson’s lower rank, gullibility, alcoholism and desperation for approval made him peculiarly vulnerable to Edward Vollmer who, by all accounts, exercised an unnatural dominance and control over Mr. Hittson,” the filing said.

    A state prosecutor, who was not identified, has submitted a letter to the parole board and provided his thoughts on the case, the filing said. The prosecutor wrote that even though Vollmer had the “lesser sentence, it is evident from the information received in the investigation that Vollmer was the instigator of the murder, that he convinced Hittson to do it, that the manner of disposing the body was Vollmer’s idea and that Vollmer is, in a word, EVIL!”

    Vollmer was allowed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence with the possibility of parole, the filing said. “This disparity in punishment is troubling and profoundly unfair, given the overwhelming agreement … that Mr. Hittson would never have committed an act like this if he had not met Edward Vollmer.”

    http://legal.blog.ajc.com/2016/02/12...-for-clemency/

  7. #17
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    GA Pardons and Parole Board to hear clemency request of death row inmate

    ATLANTA, GA (WTVM) - The Georgia Pardons and Parole Board will consider a clemency request for a death row inmate slated to die on Wednesday, Feb. 17.

    Former Navy crewman Travis Hittson, 45, was convicted of killing fellow sailor Conway Utterbeck back in 1993.

    Hittson’s attorneys have argued in the past that their client was emotionally and physically mistreated as a child, had limited intelligence, and severe alcohol problems.

    They also say Hittson was only following the directions of another sailor also convicted in the killing – Edward Vollmer. They say Vollmer masterminded the killing and manipulated Hittson.

    Additionally, they argue Hittson should not be put to death since Vollmer, who is serving a life sentence, has the possibility of one day being released on parole.

    If clemency is not granted, Hittson will be put to death by lethal injection at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the State Prison in Jackson.

    http://www.wtvm.com/story/31213289/g...ath-row-inmate
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
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    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
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  8. #18
    Administrator Aaron's Avatar
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    This clemency request is actually somewhat compelling. It sounds like Vollmer should be the one getting the needle. Vollmer should at least have no parole. It sounds like this guy might get clemency

  9. #19
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Panel Holds Clemency Hearing for Georgia Death Row Inmate

    By Kate Brumback
    ABC News

    Lawyers for a Georgia prisoner set to be executed this this week argue his life should be spared, writing Tuesday that their client has shown great remorse and was manipulated into killing a fellow Navy sailor.

    Travis Hittson, 45, is set to receive an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Georgia's state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in February 1993 of malice murder in the slaying of Conway Utterbeck when the two were Navy crewmen stationed in Pensacola, Florida.

    "The community of men who served alongside both Mr. Hittson and Conway Utterbeck in the Navy believe that Travis Hittson is deserving of mercy, as do others, including jurors who were charged with determining Mr. Hittson's punishment," his lawyers wrote in a clemency application.

    The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, held a closed-door clemency hearing Tuesday. The board did not immediately release its decision.

    Hittson had a rough childhood and developed a drinking problem early on, his lawyers wrote. He was a kind person but had trouble fitting in and constantly sought to win the approval of others, they added in the petition.

    Edward Vollmer, Hittson's direct supervisor in the Navy, was known to be violent and manipulative, and he preyed upon Hittson's need to please, the lawyers argue. Vollmer talked often of murder and how to dispose of a body and had previously threatened Utterbeck's life, the clemency application says.

    "Mr. Hittson's lower rank, gullibility, alcoholism and desperation for approval made him peculiarly vulnerable to Edward Vollmer who, by all accounts, exercised an unnatural dominance and control over Mr. Hittson," the clemency application says.

    The three men went to Vollmer's parents' home in Warner Robins for a weekend in April 1992. Hittson and Vollmer went out drinking the second night, and on the way home Vollmer told Hittson that Utterbeck planned to kill them and that they needed to "get him" first.

    On Vollmer's instructions, Hittson hit Utterbeck several times in the head with a bat and dragged him into the kitchen and shot him, according to court filings. Hittson told investigators they used a hacksaw to cut off Utterbeck's hands, head and feet, according to court filings.

    They buried Utterbeck's torso in central Georgia's Houston County and the rest of his remains in Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.

    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.

    Several people who served as jurors at Hittson's trial later told his lawyers they would have sentenced him to life without parole had that been an option at the time. Hittson has expressed great remorse for the killing and has lived an exemplary life in prison, reading religious texts and steering clear of trouble even when provoked, the clemency application says.

    Vollmer, on the other hand, has never expressed remorse or taken responsibility for his actions, Hittson's lawyers argue. Vollmer reached a plea deal and is serving a life sentence. He was denied parole in 1999 and again last year.

    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.

    State lawyers argued in response that those arguments have previously been raised and rejected by the courts and are procedurally barred.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/p...nmate-36969915

  10. #20
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Georgia parole board denies clemency to Travis Hittson

    By Bill Rankin
    Atlanta Journal-Constitution

    The State Board of Pardons and Paroles has denied clemency to Travis Hittson, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for killing a fellow Navy sailor.

    The board’s decision, announced Tuesday, rejected pleas for mercy from Hittson’s legal team. In a clemency petition, the lawyers said Hittson is extremely remorseful for what he did, has had an exemplary prison record and was manipulated to commit the murder by a co-defendant who may one day be paroled.

    The murder occurred April 3, 1992, in Warner Robins. According to court records, Hittson’s lead petty officer, Edward Vollmer, told Hittson to kill fellow sailor Conway Utterbeck on the pretense that Utterbeck was planning to kill them.

    After Hittson hit Utterbeck on the head with a baseball bat, Vollmer handed Hittson a handgun and told him to shoot Utterbeck. Hittson then fired a fatal shot into Utterbeck’s forehead, and he and Vollmer cut up Utterbeck’s body and buried buried the remains in different places.

    The clemency petition says Vollmer exercised “unnatural dominance and control” over Hittson and manipulated him into killing Utterbeck.

    Separately, Hittson’s lawyers will appeal a state court judge’s decision, denying a request to throw out Hittson’s death sentence. But a Butts County judge denied that request and Hittson’s lawyers are expected to appeal that decision to the Georgia Supreme Court.

    “Mr. Hittson was robbed of a fair and reliable sentencing trial when the prosecutor was permitted to sandbag the defense with the testimony of a state psychologist, Dr. Robert Storms, who revealed off-the-cuff but nevertheless callous statements allegedly made by Mr. Hittson about the victim, during a pre-trial evaluation,” the petition said.

    During the trial, the trial judge had said he would not let Storms take the stand unless Hittson’s lawyers presented psychiatric mitigation evidence during the sentencing phase of the trial, the petition said. Even though Hittson’s defense team did not present such evidence, the judge let Storms testify anyway, the petition said.

    For this reason, Hittson’s defense team “was utterly disarmed by the prosecution’s tactic, abetted by the trial court’s disregard of both governing law and its own assurances,” the petition said.

    http://legal.blog.ajc.com/2016/02/16...ravis-hittson/
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

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