Florida executes death row inmate James Phillip Barnes by lethal injection for strangling his wife and raping a nurse before hitting her with a hammer: Murderer, 61, refused his last meal
Florida executes death row inmate James Phillip Barnes by lethal injection for strangling his wife and raping a nurse before hitting her with a hammer: Murderer, 61, refused his last meal
- James Barnes, 61, died at 6 p.m. Thursday by lethal injection at Florida State Prison
- He had already served a life sentence for strangling his wife in 1997
- He is the fifth to be executed in Florida this year, after DeSantis turned himself in in June
A man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman in the late 1980s has been put to death – after refusing his usual last meal.
James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6:13 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke — the fifth person to be executed in the state this year.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the con artist’s death warrant last June, after recently dropping all his legal appeals and saying he would accept his sentence after 16 years on death row.
While serving a life sentence for strangling his wife Linda Barnes in 1997, Barnes confessed to the 1988 murder of Patricia “Patsy” Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida’s east coast.
The confession came in the form of letters sent to a prosecutor some eight years after his incarceration. DNA evidence later linked him to the murder, and a jury eventually sentenced him to death in 2007. He pleaded guilty,
James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke — the fifth person to be executed in the state this year
While serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife Linda Barnes (left), Barnes confessed to the 1988 murder of Patricia “Patsy” Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida’s east coast. DNA evidence later linked him to the murder, and a jury finally sentenced him to death in 2007
One of the victim’s siblings, Andrew Miller, witnessed the execution and said he remembered his sister – who was 41 when Barnes killed her at her Melbourne home.
“I didn’t come here to see anyone die. I came here to honor our sister, Patricia Miller,” he told reporters shortly after a remorseful Barnes died, refusing his last meal.
“No one should live in fear in the safety of their own home. No woman, no child, no animal should have that fear,” the relative of the deceased added, citing how Barnes entered her apartment through a bedroom window and raped her repeatedly.
The attack — which prosecutors say came after multiple, unspecified negative interactions between the couple — also saw a then-26-year-old Barnes beat her with her robe belt, smash her head with a hammer and set fire to her bed with her body on it to eliminate evidence.
“We did,” her brother said in tears.
Miller added that the rest of his family sees similarities between his sister’s case surrounding Barnes’ other confirmed victim, his then-estranged wife, Linda.