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.


From 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.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Poisoning fianceStuart Taylor only began Velma Barfield's last round of troubles. "I only meant to make him sick," she told son Ronnie Burke. Imagine his chagrin when he turned his mom in and then found she was in the crosshairs of county attorney (and minion of justice extraordinaire) Joe Freeman Britt's prosecutorial sights. Thus a woman with lots of problems was pitted against a crusading, highly successful death penalty proponent. Barfield had a history of polite drug dependency and mild-to-moderate financial indiscretion when her propensity for poisoning came to light. Her conviction for murdering Taylor (she also murdered her mother in what amounts to a subplot here) comes about halfway through the book, the rest of which concerns her and her family's travails in dealing with her crimes and the imprisonment, appeal processes, and execution plans that followed her conviction. This may not be instructive reading, but it is certainly taut and engrossing on the nature of justice and the death penalty as well as on guilt and responsibility. Mike Tribby


Book Description
Everybody knew Velma Barfield as the perfect wife and a loving grandmother. But there was something about her that nobody knew... Velma Barfield had a secret life, and a sick urge to kill.

"Fast-paced...breathes new life into the true crime genre."-- Raleigh News & Observer

"Taut and engrossing."-- Booklist"Get ready for the Velma Barfield story...complete with all the prescription drug overuse, the arsenic, the drunkenness, the spouse abuse--and the redemption. It's the equal of any suspense novel going."-- Times-News(Burlington, NC)

"Bledsoe has written a detailed account of Barfield's troubled life and motives...holds the reader's interest with a true story that reads like a novel."-- Library Journal

"Undertakes to answer the questions about the justice system and the motives that drive women to kill."-- Washington Post Book World

"An important commentary of the standing of a nation's soul, with journalistic integrity and the resonance of a fine novel."-- Will Campbell

"The Master of true crime."-- Patricia Cornwell

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.