"Florida Man Executed for Brutal 1988 Nurse Rape and Hammer Murder"

James Phillip Barnes, a Florida man, was executed for the 1988 rape and hammer killing of nurse Patricia "Patsy" Miller. Barnes, who had dropped all legal appeals, was sentenced to death after confessing to the crime and offering no defense. He had also been serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife. Barnes claimed responsibility for killing Miller in letters to a state prosecutor and had DNA evidence linking him to the crime. He was pronounced dead following a lethal injection, making it the fifth execution in Florida this year.