Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes and Punishment FROM THE PUBLISHER
A haunting true story that resonates with today's headlines, Death Sentence takes us inside the life of a multiple killer - and the only woman to be executed in the United States from 1962 until 1998. On February 3, 1978, North Carolina farmer Stuart Taylor was rushed to the hospital. His forty-six-year-old fiancee, Velma Barfield, a devout Sunday school teacher, held vigil at his bedside. But prayers couldn't save him. An autopsy revealed that arsenic had killed him. To those who knew her, Velma was a devoted mother and grandmother, a sweet and selfless caregiver. But her life was a fragile web of lies that unraveled with alarming speed, exposing a deeply disturbed woman addicted to prescription drugs, driven to bouts of suicidal despair. And murder. Turned over to the police by her son, Velma stunned her family by admitting to having murdered four people over the course of ten years - including her own mother. But there were secrets she held back... secrets not known until now.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In 1978, 52-year-old grandmother Velma Barfield admitted to poisoning four people, including her own mother. While she would be convicted of only one murder--that of her fiance, Stuart Taylor--it would be enough for her to die by lethal injection in 1984, the first woman to be executed in the U.S. after the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1974. Relying mostly on anecdotes from Barfield's two children, veteran true-crime writer Bledsoe (Before He Wakes; Blood Games) glides smoothly through Barfield's history, from a brief look into her own poor, brutalized childhood through the love and stability she provided for her own young children and finally to her decline into the prescription-drug addiction, which Barfield's lawyer would argue compromised her judgment and her responsibility. Bledsoe's account of the trial itself, particularly of the courtroom antics of district attorney Joe Freeman Britt ("the world's deadliest prosecutor"), is so vivid that it is hard to believe he was not there. Likewise, the tortured ambivalence of Barfield's son Ronnie for a mother whose drug problems destroyed his life, but whom he still remembers as his class mom, adds a depth of feeling that is often difficult to capture in true-crime literature. It is only when Barfield becomes a born-again Christian that Bledsoe's narrative gets a bit heavy-handed; although he tries to balance the testimonials to Barfield's newfound faith with interviews with the victims' families, the former far outnumber the latter. But ultimately, for Bledsoe, Barfield's story seems to be a cautionary tale that discredits the death penalty because it offers no possibility of redemption, no second chances. (Oct.)
Library Journal
A highly active murderer whose victims included her fianc and her mother, Barfield was the only woman executed in America between 1962 and 1998. This account from a best-selling true-crime author promises revelations from Barfield's son.
Kirkus Reviews
Veteran true-crime writer Bledsoe (Before He Wakes, 1994, etc.) offers a vividly bifurcated portrait of a woman who was by turns a cruel killer and a loving grandmother. Velma Barfield was the first woman in 20 years to be executed in the US when she was given a lethal injection in North Carolina in 1984. She had confessed to killing four people with arsenic (though she was tried and convicted for only one death). Her path to crime: After a childhood of poverty and abuse, Velma made a happy marriage and devoted herself to her two children. In turn, they looked after her when a series of ailments led to Barfieldþs addiction to a shelf-ful of painkillers and sedatives. Often drugged to a stupor, and further afflicted with undiagnosed manic-depressive illness, she grew selfish and shrewish, poisoning her mother as well as her boyfriend and two elderly people who employed her as a caregiver (after forging their signatures to obtain money for her drugs). The second half of Bledsoeþs smooth and engrossing narrative depicts the þotherþ Velma Barfieldþthe woman who found God after her murder conviction and served while in prison as a spiritual mentor and confidante to other women prisoners, earning their love and that of prison administrators and chaplains. This Velma, as Bledsoe makes clear, might have been best sentenced to life in prison. The authorþs account also evokes the drama of intriguing conflictual characters: Joe Freeman Britt, the near-fanatical prosecutor who obtained her conviction; Jimmy Little and Dick Burr, the lawyers who selflessly volunteered years of work without pay, trying to get Barfieldþs death sentence overturned; andPam and Ronnie, Velmaþs children, whose lives were thrown into turmoil. Bledsoeþs balanced and thorough examination raises important questions about the death penalty and how it is applied.
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