“I couldn’t believe I had committed murder.”
- Brandon Hutchinson
Except the death penalty.
For the two murders he had carried out on New Year’s Day some ten months previously, Hutchinson received the ultimate punishment. Although it would go on to be commuted to a sentence of life without chance of parole 15 years later.
There was an almost guaranteed way that Hutchinson could have reduced his sentence, however. But it involved talking - something he flat out refused to do. Not everyone follows the criminal code and observes a ‘keep your mouth shut’ omerta when faced with the prospect of being sent to Death Row. His accomplices certainly didn’t. They were extremely talkative.
Not only did he refuse to tell the police or courts exactly what happened and who exactly was responsible for doing what in the early hours of January the 1st, 1996 (he pleaded the fifth), the man hasn’t spoken about the incident to anyone. At all. Ever.
Until now.
I Am a Killer gave Brandon Hutchinson an opportunity to open up and speak out about what really happened that night. It was an opportunity he seized with enthusiasm, gladly unburdening himself for the cameras and explaining exactly what went down and who was responsible for what.
Is this precisely how things went down as recounted by Brandon in the episode? That’s Brandon’s story. Not everyone agrees with it. All we know is getting it all off his chest after 23 years of stony silence seemed like blessed relief to the man. There’s real catharsis on camera.
Free from the burden of his silence, just ten days after filming, Brandon received a diagnosis of fatal late stage liver and stomach cancer. On November 2nd 2019, aged just 44 years old, he died in jail.
Here’s hoping that telling his story make his last few months more peaceful than they otherwise would have been.
