[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----GEORGIA

[Rick Halperin]

Feb. 17



GEORGIA----execution

Georgia executes ex-Navy sailor for 1992 murder of shipmate


Georgia has executed former Navy sailor Travis Clinton Hittson for the gruesome 
1992 murder of a fellow shipmate.

Hittson, 45, was put to death by lethal injection at 8:14 p.m.

He accepted a final prayer and recorded a final statement, according to the 
Georgia Department of Corrections.

On his final day of life, Hittson met with 2 relatives, four friends and eight 
members of his legal team.

Hittson was scheduled to die at 7 p.m. but, as is usually the case, there were 
delays while the state waited for all the courts to decide whether the 
execution should be stopped.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay of execution this evening, the Georgia 
Supreme Court ruled this afternoon that Hittson's request lacked merit, and on 
Tuesday the State Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Hittson's plea that his 
sentence be commuted to life without parole.

A Houston County jury condemned Hittson to die for the April 5, 1992, murder of 
Conway Utterbeck.

According to court records, Hittson's lead petty officer, Edward Vollmer, told 
Hittson to kill Utterbeck, 20, on the pretense that Utterbeck was planning to 
kill them.

All 4 men were sailors that spring aboard the USS Forrestal, an aircraft 
carrier based in Pensacola, Fla. On the weekend of the murder, Vollmer invited 
Hittson and Utterbeck to come with him to his parents' home in Georgia. 
Vollmer's parents were out of town.

Hittson and Vollmer spent that Saturday night at area bars while Utterbeck 
stayed behind at Vollmer's parents' house. As they drove home from their night 
of drinking, Vollmer argued that shipmate Utterbeck was going to kill them both 
and they needed to "get him" first.

Once at his parents' house, Vollmer put on a bullet-proof vest he had in his 
car and retrieved a handgun and a sawed-off shotgun for himself, according to 
court records. He gave Hittson an aluminum bat.

Hittson hit Utterbeck in the head several times before dragging him to the 
kitchen where Vollmer waited with a .22-caliber handgun. Hittson shot Utterbeck 
in the head as he begged for his life.

Hittson and Vollmer later dismembered Utterbeck???s body. They buried 
Utterbeck's torso in Houston County and took the remaining body parts to 
Pensacola. The 2 men tossed the body parts into several dumpsters after they 
had reported for duty the morning of April 6, 1992.

Vollmer pleaded guilty to avoid trial and was sentenced to life with the 
possibility of parole. He has already been denied parole three times - in 1999, 
last year and today - and the Parole Board has said it will review his case 
again in 2024.

According to Hittson, who confessed to the crime but demanded a trial, the 
murder was Vollmer's idea.

Hittson is the 2nd person Georgia has executed in 2 weeks. Brandon Astor Jones, 
72, died by lethal injection in the wee hours of Feb. 3 for a 1979 Cobb County 
murder. There are at least 3 men who have run out of regular appeals and could 
see execution dates set soon.

Hittson becomes the 2nd condemned inmate to be put to death in Georgia this 
year and the 62nd overall since the state resumed capital punishment in 1983. 
Only Texas (534), Oklahoma (112), Virginia (110, Florida (92) and Missouri (86) 
have carried out more executions since the death penalty was re-legalized in 
the USA on July 2, 1976.

Hittson becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the 
USA and the 1429th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 
1977.

(sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution & Rick Halperin)