James Phillip Barnes, a death row prisoner from Florida was executed on Thursday for the gruesome 1988 murder of a nurse whom he battered with a hammer and skipped the customary farewell supper hours before he was pronounced dead, according to state corrections officials.
Barnes declined to ask for the final dinner, the Florida Department of Corrections confirmed to Fox News Digital. According to state law, offenders are entitled to one last supper which must be purchased locally and cost no more than $40.
The 61-year-old inmate was given a lethal injection after which he died at 6:31pm local time at the Florida State Prison in Starke, marking Florida's fifth execution of the year.
When he wrote to a state prosecutor in 2005, claiming responsibility for the death of Patricia "Patsy" Miller, Barnes was already serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his 44-year-old wife, Linda Barnes.
Prior to her death, Miller, a nurse who resided in a Melbourne, Florida, condominium, had several unpleasant interactions with him.
"There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, that’s all I can say," Barnes said in the jailhouse interview with German film director Werner Herzog.
On April 20, 1988, Barnes murdered Miller inside her house and later confessed in court to raping the victim twice, beating her in the skull with a hammer, and lighting her bed on fire.
Additionally, after his wife learned that he was a drug dealer in 1997, Barnes killed her. She had been strangled, according to court documents, and her body was discovered stashed in a wardrobe.
Although Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two additional persons, he has never been put on trial.
During the jailhouse interview, Barnes said that he had converted to Islam and wished to clear his conscience about the Miller case during the holy month of Ramadan, Fox News reported.
"They say I’m remorseless. I’m not. There are no more questions on this case. And I’m going to be executed," Barnes said.
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