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A Florida man who dropped all appeals has been executed for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed STARKE, Fla. -- A Florida man who recently dropped all legal appeals was executed Thursday for the 1988 murder of a woman who was sexually assaulted, killed with a hammer and then set on fire in her own bed. James Phillip Barnes, 61, was pronounced dead at 6:13 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. Lying on a gurney, Barnes appeared to already have his eyes shut when the curtain was opened for witnesses. He didn't respond when prison officials asked if he had a final statement, and he remained motionless except for breathing for about 10 minutes until that stopped. A doctor then pronounced him dead. The 61-year-old inmate was sentenced to death for the murder of nurse Patricia “Patsy” Miller. It was the fifth execution in Florida this year. One of the victim's siblings, And...

Florida is preparing to execute a man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman years earlier ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Florida is preparing to execute a man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman years earlier — a lethal injection that's expected to proceed on schedule after he dropped all legal appeals and said he wants to accept his punishment. James Phillip Barnes, 61, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke. He would be the fifth person put to death in the state this year. Barnes was serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife, 44-year-old Linda Barnes, when he wrote letters in 2005 to a state prosecutor claiming responsibility for the killing years earlier of Patricia “Patsy” Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium in Melbourne, along Florida's east coast. Barnes represented himself in court hearings where he offered no defense, pleaded g...