A Florida man was executed Wednesday for breaking into a woman's home and stabbing her to death in 1986, a crime committed months after he was released from prison for a rape. Darryl B. Barwick, 56, was pronounced dead at 6:14pm Wednesday following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison, the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis said. The US Supreme Court denied the inmate's final appeal for a stay of execution earlier in the day, the AP reports. It was the third execution conducted in Florida this year after a hiatus dating back to 2019. After being brought into the death chamber, Barwick said, "I can’t explain why I did what I did. It’s time to apologize to the family ... I’m sorry."
He added that the state needs to show more compassion and kindness for people, criticizing Florida's sentencing of teenagers to life in prison. Officials said no relatives of the victim had arranged to witness the execution. Barwick had confessed to killing 24-year-old Rebecca Wendt in her Panama City apartment on March 31, 1986, after watching her sunbathing outside and following her back to her room. He said he intended to rob Wendt but then killed her as she resisted, stabbing her 37 times as she tried to fight him off. He was 19 years old at the time, the Pensacola News Journal reports.
He was convicted of first-degree murder, armed burglary, attempted sexual battery, and armed robbery in November 1986, and sentenced to death two months later on the jury’s 9-3 recommendation. The Florida Supreme Court threw out that conviction in 1989 because of prosecutorial misconduct. Barwick was again convicted at his 1992 retrial, and that jury unanimously recommended death. Barwick killed Wendt less than three months after he was released from prison for raping a 21-year-old woman at knifepoint, according to court records. (More Florida stories.)
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