Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office Thursday urged the Florida Supreme Court to reject an appeal by Death Row inmate Darryl Barwick and help clear the way for his May 3 execution.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, on April 4, signed a death warrant for Barwick 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.
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Barwick’s attorneys filed a 77-page brief Tuesday arguing the Supreme Court should stay the execution and reject the death sentence or order an evidentiary hearing.
But Moody’s office, in a 65-page brief Thursday, disputed arguments raised by Barwick’s attorneys and said he murdered Wendt after being released from prison.
He had been convicted in a separate case of sexual battery and burglary, the brief said.
“The simple truth is that Barwick has been living on borrowed time for decades with his victims paying the price and waiting for justice,” Moody’s office argued. “There is no more time left for Barwick to borrow. It is time for justice, not delay.”
In seeking to halt the execution Tuesday, Barwick’s attorneys wrote, in part, that he has a “severe neuropsychological disorder, lifelong cognitive impairments, and low mental age.”
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Among other things, the brief by Barwick’s attorneys said he suffered trauma before birth, including when his mother fell downstairs.
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.
But Moody’s office said, in part, that such issues are not new and shouldn’t be used to halt the execution.
“He has known about his brain damage, low mental age, and neurological disorders for well over a decade and cannot now use them on the eve of his execution,” Thursday’s brief said. “Any claim related to this long-known information is therefore untimely.”
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