Florida (USA) Darryl B. Barwick, 56, was executed by injection on Wednesday for stabbing a 24-year-old girl to death in 1986.so there are three inmates executed in the state so far this year.
He was pronounced dead at 6:14 PM local time (22:14 GMT) after receiving a lethal injection at the Florida State Penitentiary located in Raiford (north) town of Barwick, as reported by the Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons). This is the third execution ever to be held in Florida this year, and after all appeals submitted by the defense for a stay of execution have been exhausted, including an emergency to the U.S. Supreme Court, which was rejected today. It’s also the shortest time three executions have taken place in the state since 2014. It’s also the third execution in Florida since 2019 (no executions between 2020 and 2022) and the 102nd since it took place. In 1976, the death penalty was reintroduced in this state.
Florida Supreme Court rejected an appeal last Friday Barwick’s lawyers argued that he should not have been executed because he suffered from chronic mental illness and was mentally handicapped due to neurological disorders.
As determined at the trial, on March 31, 1986, Barwick saw 24-year-old victim Rebecca Wendt sunbathing in the pool of the apartment complex where she lived in Panama City (northwest Florida). When Wendt returned to his apartment, Barwick, then 19, He followed her inside with the intention of robbing her, and when she resisted, she stabbed him 37 times. until it causes death. He confessed to the murder when he was arrested, but insisted that he only entered Wendt’s apartment to steal.
Florida governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, who promoted a legislative change, thus unanimous decision is not required The jury signed Barwick’s death warrant in early April to sentence one person to death.
The executed man woke up at 4:15 am local time today and received a spiritual counselor. Five hours later, according to local media reports, they served him his last meal: a menu of fried chicken, black beans, macaroni and cheese, rice and cornbread, and ice cream for dessert. Before execution, a prisoner may ask for one last meal. To avoid “splurge,” the Florida Department of Corrections (Prisons) says on its website that “food to be prepared should cost no more than $40 and must be purchased locally.”
Since the reintroduction of the death penalty in Florida in 1976, 102 people have been executed. According to figures from the aforementioned government office, there are 297 convicts at the time of execution in this southern state. On 12 April, 56-year-old Louis Bernard Gaskin was executed for a 1989 double murder, and on 23 February, 59-year-old Donald Dillbeck, who was convicted of two first-degree murders, the first of which was committed with a firearm, was executed. Underage in 1979 and another knife in 1990.
As before the execution of Dillbeck and Gaskin, the Florida Catholic Bishops’ Conference (FCCB) asked Governor DeSantis to halt the execution of Darryl Barwick and commute his sentence to life without parole. “State-sanctioned murder only continues to foster desecration of human life. It is unnecessary to take another life, because society can be protected from Mr. Barwick by a severe and appropriate life sentence.” A letter to DeSantis Michael Sheedy, FCCB’s executive director, on April 26.