Travis Clinton Hittson v. GDCP Warden

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

In April 1992, Travis Hittson and Edward Vollmer, who were enlisted men in the Navy, brutally killed, mutilated, and dismembered their shipmate Conway Ut-terbeck. Hittson confessed to the crime, and in February 1993 he was convicted of murder in the Superior Court of Houston County, Georgia. During the penalty phase of his trial,1 Hittson tried to show that his co-defendant, Vollmer, had planned the murder and manipulated Hitt-*1217son into helping him carry it out. This strategy fell short and the jury returned a unanimous death sentence, finding as an aggravating factor…