A federal judge Tuesday refused to stay the scheduled May 3 execution of Darryl Barwick, while the Death Row inmate’s attorneys urged the Florida Supreme Court to spare him because of “lifelong severe mental illness.”
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle issued a six-page ruling that turned down arguments the execution should be put on hold because Barwick did not receive a fair state clemency proceeding. Barwick’s attorneys argued his due-process rights were violated.
“Mr. Barwick was allowed to make a written submission and to appear in person for an interview with representatives of the clemency board,” Hinkle wrote. “In this proceeding, Mr. Barwick has not alleged he was denied the opportunity to present any information he wished to present. He has alleged no facts suggesting the members of the clemency board made their decision based on anything other than the merits.”
In the news: U.S. Marshals Florida Fugitive Task Force Net Guns And Meth During Search Warrant
Barwick’s attorneys are trying to halt the execution after Gov. Ron DeSantis on April 4 signed a death warrant in the 1986 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.
The federal case, filed last week, focuses on a process that involves the Florida Commission on Offender Review conducting investigations in death-penalty cases and making recommendations to the Board of Executive Clemency, which is made up of DeSantis and members of the state Cabinet.
Barwick had a clemency interview in 2021, and an attorney subsequently submitted an application to commute the death sentence, according to a document filed last week in federal court. The document said DeSantis, in signing the death warrant this month, denied clemency.
In the document filed last week, Barwick’s attorneys pointed to a “standardless process” that has never led to commuting a death sentence.
In the news: Florida AG Moody Calls For Investigation Into Biden Admin Facilitating Human Trafficking
“Mr. Barwick’s clemency process did not comport with due process,” the attorneys wrote. “The defects in Mr. Barwick’s clemency process rose to the level of coin flipping where both sides of the coin reflected: ‘denied.’ This meaningless aspect of the death penalty scheme in Florida has resulted in 40 years without a single grant of mercy for a death sentenced inmate.”
But Hinkle rejected such arguments.
“Mr. Barwick says no death-sentenced applicant has been granted clemency in Florida in the last 40 years,” Hinkle wrote. “Without knowing the facts of the other cases, not much can be said about them. The issue here, though, is what happened in just this one case. In this case, there were facts supporting both sides of the clemency issue. In Mr. Barwick’s favor were substantial mitigating circumstances, including that as a child he suffered relentless abuse from his father, he was developmentally delayed, he now has substantial mental and psychological deficits, and he apparently has compiled a good record while in custody. On the other side, Mr. Barwick committed this horrific crime, and it was not his first. At least insofar as shown by this record, Mr. Barwick was denied clemency because the members of the clemency board found the mitigating circumstances insufficient to outweigh the crime and the criminal history.”
In the news: Judge Rejects Florida ‘Intellectual Freedom’ Case
Meanwhile Tuesday, Barwick’s attorneys filed a 77-page brief urging the Florida Supreme Court to stay the execution and reject the death sentence or order an evidentiary hearing.
The brief cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent that has barred executing people with intellectual disabilities. That is based on Eighth Amendment prohibitions on cruel and unusual punishment.
The brief said Barwick has a “severe neuropsychological disorder, lifelong cognitive impairments and low mental age.” Among other things, the brief said Barwick suffered trauma before birth, including when his mother fell down stairs.
“The in utero trauma severely damaged Mr. Barwick’s brain even before he took his first breath,” the brief said. “As a result, a serious mental illness — neurodevelopmental/neurocognitive disorder — has pervaded Mr. Barwick’s life.”
If the execution is carried out, Barwick, 56, would be the third inmate put to death by lethal injection in less than three months.
Louis Gaskin was executed last week in the 1989 murders of a couple in Flagler County. The state on Feb. 23 put to death Donald David Dillbeck, who murdered a woman in 1990 during a carjacking in a Tallahassee mall parking lot.
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Signup for our free newsletter.
We can’t do this without your help; visit our GiveSendGo page and donate any dollar amount; every penny helps.