James Barnes Wants His Florida Execution to Proceed 'Without Any Delay'

A self-confessed serial killer is set to be executed on Thursday after saying that he wants his own death to occur "without any delay."

Florida murderer James Barnes has been convicted of the killings of two women but claims to have murdered two other victims. He is due to die on August 3. It comes after the 61-year-old ruled out any post-conviction legal wrangling on his behalf, telling a judge that he wants to "see justice to be served in this case." He strangled his wife, and broke into a stranger's home, raped her, beat her, then killed her with a hammer while she was bound before setting fire to her.

Barnes will be the fifth Florida inmate to be executed this year after Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on June 22. The Sunshine State is poised to become the most extreme in terms of death-penalty laws, after DeSantis signed a bill in April that would allow executions to be handed down on jury votes of 8-4 rather than unanimously.

Campaigning for the presidency, DeSantis has been pushing for harsher legislation as he vows to be tough on crime and has been dubbed "DeathSantis." But the move towards ramping up executions has been controversial, with anti-Death Row campaigners and thousands of Christians coming out in opposition to his plans.

Brevard County Circuit Judge Steve Henderson issued an order on June 28 that said Barnes had dismissed "all postconviction proceedings" to prevent his execution.

Describing his conversation with Barnes about the subject, the judge said he was "not only competent, but also intelligent." Henderson wrote that Barnes "was adamant that he did not want any postconviction proceedings to occur, that he wanted to accept responsibility for his actions and proceed to execution (his death) without any delay. The defendant specifically told the court that he 'did not want to delay justice' and he wanted to 'see justice to be served in this case.'"

Barnes was sentenced to death for the murder of a nurse who had apparently been unknown to him. He broke into Patricia 'Patsy' Miller's Melbourne, Florida, condominium in April 1988 and subjected the 41-year-old to brutal, sustained physical and sexual violence before murdering her by choking her and beating her head with a hammer as she lay tied up on her bed.

During an interview for a documentary called On Death Row that was made by German filmmaker Werner Herzog and aired in 2012, Barnes said there had been previous encounters with Miller that had left him "terribly humiliated." However, he declined to be drawn further, only admitting that her murder was premeditated by him.

Miller's killing had remained unsolved for almost two decades when DNA testing linked Barnes to the crime scene and he admitted to being her killer in 2005. He said he had converted to Islam and was now prepared to confess to clear his conscience, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

At the time, Barnes was already in prison serving time for the December 1997 murder of his estranged wife, Linda Barnes. The 44-year-old had obtained a restraining order against him, but he went to her home and strangled her. He was still at the property, with her body stuffed in a closet, when police investigating her disappearance arrested him 10 days later. Barnes pleaded guilty to her murder at court, where he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Barnes said he murdered two other victims, a woman and a man, during an interview for Herzog's documentary. He added: "I have a list of things that I'm going to accomplish. And one of them is to resolve all the unresolved crimes that I've ever committed."

Barnes told the filmmaker that he had murdered Chester Wetmore in 1988, describing him as a homeless teenager who was addicted to crystal meth. He said Wetmore had broken into his car and stolen cocaine that Barnes was planning to sell, so he tracked him down, shot him to death and buried the body.

Barnes also said he murdered Brenda Fletcher. He described her as a middle-aged drug addicted prostitute who didn't have any family. Barnes said he killed her in 1991 after he accused her of stealing his wallet, which she had denied. He added that he dumped her body in a ditch.

After the documentary aired, authorities said they were investigating whether Barnes was responsible for the two unsolved murders. However, more than 10 years later, he has still not been charged with either of those crimes.

After Barnes told Herzog that he had murdered two other people that he had never faced justice for, the filmmaker replied that the state was unlikely to take the time and incur the cost of prosecuting him and going to trial for those crimes. Prosecutors would not go through with sentencing him to death all over again, because the state would rather see him executed. "What's the point? They just want to kill you. Fast," Herzog said. Barnes nodded. "Right," he replied.