Florida executes man convicted of strangling his wife and beating a nurse to death
The state of Florida has executed this Thursday, by lethal injection, James Phillip Barnes, 61, for the 1997 murder of his wife, whom he strangled, and another woman, a nurse, years before.
Barnes was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. local time (22:13 GMT) on Thursday after receiving a lethal injection at the Florida State Prison (FSP), located in the town of Raiford (north), according to a spokesman for the Governor of Florida.
The execution was ordered after the convicted person himself rejected the filing of appeals and indicated his willingness to apply the maximum penalty.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the warrant for Barnes' execution on June 22.. It is the fifth execution that has been carried out in Florida since 2019 (between 2020 and 2022 there were none) and number 104 since capital punishment was restored in this state, in 1976.
Barnes got up this Thursday at 05:30 in the morning (09:30 GMT) and gave up the last meal. He did not receive visits or the consolation of any spiritual adviser, as is usual, as explained at a press conference this afternoon, hours before the execution, a prison spokeswoman.
The Barnes Murders
Barnes was serving a life sentence for strangling his wife, Linda Barnes, 44, when in 2005 he wrote several letters from prison to a state attorney that also claimed responsibility for the brutal 1988 murder of Patricia “Patsy” Miller. , a nurse who lived in Melbourne, on the east coast of Florida.
In court hearings that followed, Barnes represented himself in court and pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the 1988 death of Miller, who was 41 when she was beaten to death with a hammer.
According to court documents, Barnes entered Miller's home and, after raping her, tried to strangle her and then hit her over the head with a hammer, a crime to which he pleaded guilty.
Analyzed DNA evidence linked Barnes to Miller's murder, and he was sentenced to death on December 13, 2007.
As for his wife, Linda, Barnes killed her in 1997 after she found out he was dealing drugs.
The woman's body was found inside a closet and showed signs of strangulation.
Other convicts on death row
Florida applied the lethal injection last June to Duane Owen (executed number 103), sentenced to death for the murders of two women in 1984, after two appeals by his lawyers to stay the execution for serious mental problems, which were denied.
There are currently 292 inmates on “death row” in Florida, including three women, according to Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons) records.
Since 1973, more than 190 people have been released from death row in the United States.. for evidence of his innocence, with Florida, with 30 exonerated from capital punishment, being the state with the highest number, followed by Illinois (22) and Texas (16).
The Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes capital punishment, scheduled a series of prayer vigils Thursday across the state.
In addition, the organization Citizens Against the Death Penalty of Tallahassee is holding a vigil in front of Governor DeSantis' mansion starting at 6:00 p.m. local time in Tallahassee, the state capital, on the occasion of the execution.
The organization will carry out a remembrance service this Friday at noon in the rotunda of the state Capitol, in the aforementioned city.