Velma Barfield

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Velma Margie Barfield (October 29, 1932 - November 2, 1984) was the first woman in the United States to be executed since 1962. She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

Velma's first known encounter with a death of someone close to her was her first husband, Thomas Burke, who died of smoke inhalation when the family's house caught fire. Strangely enough, only a few months later, their house burst into flame again, this time with a reward of insurance money.

In 1970, she married a widower by the name of Jennings Barfield. Less than a year after their marriage, Jennings died from heart complications, leaving Velma a widow once again. According to friends and family, this spurred her already blooming addiction to prescribed medications, resulting in numerous hospital visits^{[citation needed]}.

It is believed that Velma's first attempt at murder was at her very own mother, Lillian Bullard^{[citation needed]} . In 1974, Lillian possessed symptoms of intense diarrhea, vomiting and nausea, only to fully recover a few days later. Approximately two months afterwards, a man whom Velma had been dating was involved in a fatal car accident. During the Christmas season of the same year, Lillian experienced the same illness as earlier that year, resulting in her death only hours after arriving at the hospital. Velma's mother was to be her first victim through poison^{[citation needed]} .

In 1976, Velma began an occupation as a caretaker for the elderly, working for Montgomery and Dollie Edwards. In the winter of that year, Montgomery fell ill and died. A little over a month after the death of her husband, Dollie experienced identical symptoms to that of Velma's mother and she too passed away.

The following year, 1977, Velma took another caretaking job, this time for 76-year old Record Lee, who had broken her leg. On June 4, Lee's husband began experiencing racking pains in his stomach and chest along with vomiting and diarrhea^{[citation needed]} . He died soon afterwards.

Velma Barfield was executed on November 2, 1984 at the Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina for the murder of another victim, Stuart Taylor, who was her boyfriend and a relative of Dollie Edwards. Fearing he discovered she had been forging checks on his account, she mixed an arsenic-based rat poison into his beer and tea^{[citation needed]} . He died on February 3, 1978 while she tried to "nurse" him back to health; an autopsy found arsenic in Taylor's system. After her arrest, the body of Thomas Barfield was exhumed and found to have fatal amounts of arsenic^{[citation needed]} .

During her stay on death row, Barfield became a devout born again christian. Despite the vicious nature of her crimes, her last few years were spent ministering to prisoners and guards alike. Barfield was heavily involved in Christianity, to the point that some tried to get an appeal for her life after noticing the changes^{[citation needed]} . The appeal was denied, and Barfield was executed.