Death Sentence (57 page)

LEFT: Velma Barfield was so attached to Ronnie and Pam that she could not stand to be apart from them even overnight. (
Courtesy of Ronnie Burke
)
CENTER: Ronnie and Pam loved to play on the Dr Pepper truck their father drove. (
Courtesy of Ronnie Burke
)
RIGHT: Ronnie poses with his uncles Jimmy and Ray at his grandparents’ rented farmhouse. (
Courtesy of Tyrone Bullard
)

LEFT: After his mother was sent to death row, Ronnie found it harder and harder to visit her, saying he could not stand to see her trapped and facing death. (
Photo by Elin Schoen Brockman
)
RIGHT: On her final Easter, Velma Barfield presenting Easter bunnies she made to her granddaughters, Beverly (sitting on her mother’s lap) and Sarah Sue, as Ronnie looks on, in March 1984. (
Photo by Elin Schoen Brockman
)

Velma Barfield’s family watching her return to her cell block after the Easter visit, 1984—Ronnie and Faye are on left. (
Photo by Elin Schoen Brockman
)

Velma Barfield in her cell at Women’s Prison, in fall 1984, where she was affectionately called Mama Margie by other inmates. (
Courtesy of
Fayetteville Observer-Times,
photo by Cindy Burnham
)

LEFT: The gurney on which Velma Barfield died by lethal injection. RIGHT: The death chamber where Velma Barfield was executed. (
Photos by Patty McQuillan
)

Velma Barfield’s execution drew unprecedented attention from around the world, and hundreds of reporters and photographers gathered outside the gates of Central Prison. (
Courtesy of
Fayetteville Observer-Times,
photo by johnny Home
)

Attorney Jimmie Little fought until the last day to save Velma Barfield in the courts. (
Courtesy of
Fayetteville Observer-Times,
photo by Cindy Burnham
)

Velma Barfield’s impending execution brought demonstrators both for and against capital punishment. Vigil keepers held candles and hummed “Amazing Grace,” Velma Barfield’s favorite hymn. (
Courtesy of
Fayetteville Observer-Times,
photos by johnny Home
)

Death-row supporters cheered and shouted “Die!” when the execution hour arrived. (
Courtesy of
Fayetteville Observer-Times,
photos by johnny Home
)

Stuart Taylor invited Velma Barfield to move into his farmhouse near St. Paul’s. Three months afterward she put arsenic in his beer and iced tea. (
Photo by Jerry Bledsoe
)

LEFT: At Stuart’s funeral, one of his closest friends saw Velma Barfield standing alone by his grave, the last to leave. (
Photo by Jerry Bledsoe
)
RIGHT: Ronnie and Pam wanted their mother buried alongside their father, within sight of the big white house in Parkton where they all had shared the happiest years of their lives. (
Photo by Jerry Bledsoe
)

More from Jerry Bledsoe