Florida is set to execute a death row inmate convicted of stabbing a woman to death, months after he was released from prison for rape.
Darryl B. Barwick, 56, is set to be executed at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison in Starke. Earlier in the day, the U.S. Supreme Court denied his final appeal for a stay of execution.
Hours before he was set to die by lethal injection, he had his customary last meal, which consisted of fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas with rice, cornbread, ice cream and soda, the Florida Department of Corrections told Fox News Digital.
FLORIDA ‘NINJA KILLER’ EXECUTED, HAS LAST MEAL OF PORK RIBS, WINGS
Barwick confessed to killing 24-year-old Rebecca Wendt in her Panama City apartment on March 31, 1986, after watching her sunbathe outside and following back to her room.
He said he intended to rob her but she resisted and stabbed her 37 times. There was no evidence of sexual assault, but medical examiners reported finding semen on a blanket where her body was found.
Barwick was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder, armed burglary, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery in November 1986. The conviction was thrown out by the Florida Supreme Court in 1989 because of prosecutorial misconduct. Barwick was convicted again at his 1992 retrial and that jury unanimously recommended death.
He killed Wendt less than three months after being released from prison for raping a 21-year-old woman at knifepoint.
The execution will be the third in Florida this year. Last month, the state executed Louis Gaskin. Gaskin, dubbed the “ninja killer,” died by lethal injection on April 12 for the deaths of Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, on Dec. 20, 1989, in their Flagler County winter home.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
