Florida carried out the execution of Darryl B. Barwick, 56, by lethal injection on a Wednesday after a long legal process over the 1986 murder of a 24-year-old woman in Panama City. With Barwick’s death, three inmates have been executed in Florida so far this year.
Barwick was pronounced deceased at 6:14 PM local time (22:14 GMT) following the injection at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. The Florida Department of Corrections confirmed the execution, noting that all appeals seeking a stay had been exhausted, including an emergency request to the U.S. Supreme Court which was rejected. The pace marks the fastest sequence of three executions in the state since 2014. Since 1976, when Florida reinstated the death penalty, this year’s activity represents one of the more active periods in recent memory, and it is the third execution in Florida since 2019, with no executions between 2020 and 2022, bringing the total to 102 since the policy’s reintroduction.
Florida’s Supreme Court had previously rejected Barwick’s appeal, which argued that his chronic mental illness and neurological impairments rendered the death sentence inappropriate. The defense contended that these conditions should have prevented execution, but the high court dismissed those arguments, allowing the sentence to proceed.
Evidence at trial showed that on March 31, 1986, Barwick observed a 24-year-old victim, Rebecca Wendt, sunbathing at the pool area of her apartment complex in Panama City, located in the northwest part of the state. Barwick, then 19, followed Wendt into her residence with the intent to rob her. When she resisted, he stabbed her 37 times, an act that directly led to her death. Barwick later confessed to the murder, though he maintained that his sole purpose in entering Wendt’s apartment was theft.
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has backed legislative changes aimed at shaping capital punishment procedures. The jury’s decision to impose the death sentence came in early April after extensive legal proceedings. The execution proceeded despite prior requests for clemency or commuting the sentence to life without parole.
Barwick was awakened for the day’s events around 4:15 AM local time and was attended to by a spiritual counselor. Local reports indicate a last meal was served roughly five hours later, consisting of fried chicken, black beans, macaroni and cheese, rice and cornbread, with ice cream for dessert. The Department of Corrections notes that last meals are subject to a cost limit and must be prepared locally, with a cap intended to avoid excessive expenditures.
Since the death penalty was brought back in Florida in 1976, the state has executed 102 people. Current statistics from state authorities show there were 297 inmates under the sentence of death at the time. Earlier in the year, Louis Bernard Gaskin, aged 56, was executed for a double murder committed in 1989, and Donald Dillbeck, aged 59, was put to death for two first-degree murders, including one offense carried out with a firearm during a period when he was a juvenile. The state’s capital punishment history includes a series of high-profile cases, some involving lengthy appellate processes and shifting legal interpretations over the decades.
In the wake of Barwick’s execution, the Florida Catholic Bishops’ Conference urged Governor DeSantis to halt the sentence and consider commuting it to life imprisonment without parole. The executive director of the conference, Michael Sheedy, sent a letter on April 26 urging a reprieve, emphasizing that state-sanctioned killing does not align with a compassionate approach to justice. The call reflected ongoing debates about the moral, legal, and practical consequences of capital punishment in the state, and across the country, where officials continue to grapple with how to balance public safety, justice for victims, and concerns about the potential for irreversible error. The conversation remains active among lawmakers, religious groups, and advocacy organizations, each offering perspectives on the appropriate role of the death penalty in a modern legal system.