Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Execution [Hardcover]

Jerry Bledsoe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1998

In February 1978, Stuart Taylor was rushed to the hospital. He died the following day, while his distraught fiance, Velma Barfield, held vigil at his bedside. When an autopsy revealed the true cause of his death--arsenic poisoning--Velma became the prime suspect. Confronted by her trusting son, she shocked him and her family by saying, "I only meant to make him sick." But more horrifying revelations were to come. Velma had killed before--and among her victims was her own mother! Thus began her family' s long nightmare. Velma Barfield' s name would become known around the world in the debate about women and capital punishment. But nobody would know the agonies her family suffered, especially her son, who harbored secrets that only he knew--until now. Deeply moving, unfolds with the page-turning suspense of a psychological thriller, while raising questions that still tear at America's conscience.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1984, Velma Barfield became the first woman since 1962 to be executed in the United States. Her crimes were unusual: Barfield was convicted of the 1978 arsenic poisoning of her fiancé, Stuart Taylor, and she admitted killing three other people with poison, including her own mother. But her path to execution was circuitous, involving appeal after appeal to various high courts, a grassroots movement to prevent her death, a jailhouse spiritual epiphany, and subsequent "recollections" of childhood abuse and torment that she claimed eventually led to her abuse of prescription tranquilizers, which in turn clouded her judgment and enabled her to perform murderous crimes. Death Sentence, however, is as much about the people she left behind as it is about her fate.

Jerry Bledsoe chooses Barfield's son, Ronnie Burke, as his protagonist. Burke is a greatly sympathetic character whose sense of horror and shame leaps from the pages. Burke watches his own life fall apart as his mother undergoes a transformation in prison, while he uses every last ounce of his strength to try to save her life. He feels duty bound to help her, but nearing the end of the appeals process, he begs her to just quit and accept her ultimate penalty. Yet at her funeral, divorced and in the beginning stages of alcoholism, he cries and begs her forgiveness, apologizing for not doing more to save her. Openly critical of the death penalty, Bledsoe focuses a surgically precise camera on the process of state-sponsored execution and its effects, and the result is a grim but gripping and suspenseful tale. --Tjames Madison

From 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.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; 1ST edition (October 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525942556
• ISBN-13: 978-0525942559
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,663,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tobacco Road noir, February 6, 2000

By 

Mr Mondo - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment (Paperback)

This engrossing account of Margie Velma Barfield is unusual in the areas it highlights -- the emotional horror that the family and friends of the murderer and her victims experience; the chilling process of deliberately taking a human life via an artifically contrived legal system; the questionable truth of the condemned's redemption. Not many true-crime books focus on these aspects of a capital case and Bledsoe does a fantastic job of presenting a very nuanced account of the Barfield case.

Barfield's guilt was established without a shadow of a doubt very early in the investigation of the death of her lover, Stuart Taylor. Since there's obviously no drama inherent in an open and shut case of this nature, most true crime accounts would immediately shift focus to the question of what drove the murderer to commit his or her crimes.

Bledsoe spares us the usual arm-chair psychology. Instead, he carefully explains the tortuous appeals process and the politics underlying the literally life-and-death decisions that lie at the end of that process. I am a proponent of the death penalty, but I am also firmly convinced that the state owes those people accused of a capital crime an adequate defense. Otherwise, the death penalty becomes an arbitrary punishment imposed on defendants who lack the financial resources to pay for competent legal representation.

Margie Velma Barfield was unquestionably guilty of the crime which led to her execution at Central Prison in Raleigh. She is also unquestionably guilty of destroying the lives of everyone around her. And I believe she was unquestionably sane enough to know that what she was doing was wrong.

What remains in question, however, is whether the State of North Carolina, in its zeal to punish her, adequately guarded her constitutional rights. Bledsoe does an outstanding job of raising precisely this issue and has the good grace to let us decide for ourselves.

Jerry Bledsoe is probably one of the best true crime writers in the United States. His work is always well-crafted. This book, while lacking some of the powerful narrative of his other work, is an important read for those of us who want to make sure the death penalty does not degenerate into state-sponsored vengeance disguised as justice.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling!, January 2, 2000

By 

"burnlb" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Punishment (Paperback)

As an avid true crime reader for many, many years, Bledsoe's compelling story of Velma Barfield's crimes, trial and the wrenching days and hours before execution, was one of the best I've ever read. Never has a true crime story had me in tears. As an proponent of the death penalty, I was very moved by Bledsoe's moving account of the countdown to execution. It is written so vividly, one feels they are there, experiencing the various emotions displayed by Velma's family, prison staff, friends, etc. This is a must for true crime readers!

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The truth is scarier than fiction, October 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Death Sentence: The True Story of Velma Barfield's Life, Crimes, and Execution (Hardcover)

In 1984, Velma Barfield was the first woman executed by a state in the United States in over two decades. What led Velma into using arsenic to kill four people over a decade? Jerry Bledsoe explores Velma's background, the impact of her conviction on her children, and insight into the key characters that were involved in her trial such as her attorneys and the prosecuting attorney. The second part of this true life story is Velma's finding God as she awaits her execution.

This true life crime story is an incredible accomplishment by Jerry Bledsoe because the author provides a wider examination than normally found with these type of books. Mr. Bledsoe goes beyond just Velma by delving into the motivations of her attorneys and the prosecutor, and the impact on Velma's family. By doing this, the talented writer makes the book seem more complete than most legal thrillers and leaves readers pondering the merits of the death penalty in a way rarely seen on the printed page. This reviewer will go second hand booking in order to read Mr. Bledsoe's previous true crime stories (BITTER BLOOD, BLOOD GAMES, and BEFORE HE WAKES) as well as his fictional work (THE ANGEL DOLLS) because if they are half as good DEATH SENTENCE, they are masterpieces.