Georgia to execute ex-Navy crewman who killed fellow soldier

ATLANTA (AP) — A former Navy crewman is set to be executed today in Georgia for killing a fellow sailor whose remains were found buried in two states.

Travis Hittson, 45, is scheduled to receive an injection of the barbiturate pentobarbital at 7 p.m. at the state prison in Jackson. He was convicted in the April 1992 killing of Conway Utterbeck.

The State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which is the only entity in Georgia authorized to commute a death sentence, rejected Hitton's request for clemency after a hearing on the matter Tuesday.

Hittson was mistreated and neglected as a child and constantly craved the approval of others, his lawyers have said. That, combined with alcoholism and relatively low intelligence, made it easy for his direct supervisor in the Navy, Edward Vollmer, to manipulate him into killing Utterbeck, Hittson's lawyers argued.

Hittson still has a legal challenge pending before state courts that says his 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.