ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Florida is getting ready to execute a person convicted of strangling his spouse and brutally murdering one other lady years earlier — a deadly injection that is anticipated to proceed on schedule after he dropped all authorized appeals and mentioned he desires to just accept his punishment.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, is scheduled to die by deadly injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Jail in Starke. He can be the fifth individual put to dying within the state this 12 months.

Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his spouse, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming accountability for the killing years earlier of Patricia “Patsy” Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium in Melbourne, alongside Florida’s east coast.

Barnes represented himself in courtroom hearings the place he provided no protection, pleaded responsible to killing Miller and didn’t try to hunt a life sentence quite than the dying penalty. Miller, who was 41 when Barnes killed her, had had some unspecified unfavourable interactions with him, in keeping with a jailhouse interview he gave to movie director Werner Herzog.

“There were several events that happened (with Miller). I felt terribly humiliated, that’s all I can say,” Barnes mentioned within the interview.

Barnes killed Miller at her dwelling on April 20, 1988. When he pleaded responsible, Barnes advised the choose that after breaking into Miller’s unit, “I raped her twice. I tried to strangle her to Death. I hit her head with a hammer and killed her and I set her bed on fire,” according to court records.

There was also DNA evidence linking Barnes to Miller’s killing. Barnes pleaded guilty to killing her and was sentenced to death on Dec. 13, 2007. He also pleaded guilty to sexual battery, arson, and burglary with an assault and battery.

Barnes killed his wife in 1997 after she discovered that he was dealing drugs. Her body was found stuffed in a closet after she was strangled, court records show. Barnes has claimed to have killed at least two other people but has never been charged in those cases.

Barnes had been in and out of prison since his teenage years, including convictions for grand theft, forgery, burglary and trafficking in stolen property.

In the Miller case, state lawyers appointed to represent Barnes filed initial appeals, including one that led to mental competency evaluations. Two doctors found that Barnes had symptoms of personality disorder with “borderline antisocial and sociopathic features.” However, they pronounced him competent to understand his legal situation and plead guilty, and his convictions and death sentence were upheld.

After Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his dying warrant in June, a Brevard County choose granted Barnes’ movement to drop all appeals involving mitigating proof equivalent to his psychological situation and mentioned “that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and to proceed to execution (his death) without any delay,” court records show.

Though unusual, condemned inmates sometimes don’t pursue every legal avenue to avoid execution. The Death Penalty Information Center reports that about 150 such inmates have been put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the death penalty as constitutional in 1976.

The Florida Supreme Court accepted the Brevard County ruling, noting last week that no other motion seeking a stay of execution for Barnes had been filed in state or federal court.

In the Herzog interview, Barnes said he converted to Islam in prison and wanted to clear his conscience about the Miller case during the holy month of Ramadan.

“They say I’m remorseless. I’m not. There are no more questions on this case. And I’m going to be executed,” Barnes mentioned.

In a current letter, the Florida Convention of Catholic Bishops requested DeSantis to grant a keep of execution and commute Barnes’ sentence to life in jail though Barnes is not searching for such reduction. The Catholic church opposes the dying penalty.

“Mr. Barnes’ willing acceptance of death, the punishment put in place by the justice system, does not absolve the state from bringing it about. Simply put, no one should be executed in our modern penal system, even if they willingly accept it,” the letter mentioned.

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