The Florida Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal by Death Row inmate Darryl Barwick, as the state prepares to execute him next week in the 1986 murder of a woman in Bay County.
Justices, in a 24-page main opinion, turned down a series of arguments, including that he should be shielded from execution because of what his attorneys described as “lifelong severe mental illness (neurodevelopmental/neurocognitive disorder) accompanied by immutable cognitive deficits and low mental age.”
The attorneys, in an April 18 brief, pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court precedent that bars executing people with intellectual disabilities.
But Friday’s Florida Supreme Court ruling said the “claim is procedurally barred” because it had been raised unsuccessfully in earlier appeals.
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Also, the ruling said that “even if it were not procedurally barred or untimely, this claim is without merit.” The ruling came two days after a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Barwick’s attorneys on different grounds. Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 4 signed a death warrant for Barwick, now 56, in the murder of Rebecca Wendt.
Wendt was found wrapped in a comforter in her Panama City apartment and had been stabbed 37 times, according to court documents.
Barwick is scheduled to be executed Wednesday at Florida State Prison. Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Charles Canady, John Couriel, Jamie Grosshans and Renatha Francis shared Friday’s main opinion. Justice Jorge Labarga concurred in the result but wrote a short separate opinion.
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