Florida executes death row inmate James Phillip Barnes with lethal injection for strangling his wife to death and raping a nurse before beating her with a hammer: Killer, 61, refused his final meal

A man convicted of strangling his wife and brutally murdering another woman in the late 80s has been put to death - after refusing his customary last meal.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6:13pm Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke - the fifth person executed in the state this year.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on the con's death warrant this past June, after he recently dropped all of his legal appeals and said he was set to accept his punishment after 16 years on death row.

While serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife Linda Barnes, Barnes confessed to the 1988 killing Patricia 'Patsy' Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida's east coast.

The confession came in the form of letters some eight years into his incarceration, sent to a state prosecutor. DNA evidence later linked him to the killing, and a jury ultimately sentenced him to death in 2007. He pleaded guilty.

James Phillip Barnes, 61, died by lethal injection at 6:13pm Thursday at Florida State Prison in Starke - the fifth person executed in the state this year 

While serving a life sentence for the 1997 strangulation of his wife Linda Barnes (left), Barnes confessed to the 1988 killing Patricia 'Patsy' Miller, a nurse who lived in a condominium on Florida's east coast. DNA evidence later linked him to the killing, and a jury ultimately sentenced him to death in 2007. His case had been held up since

 One of the victim's siblings, Andrew Miller, witnessed the execution and said he came to remember his sister - who was 41 when Barnes killed her at her home in Melbourne.

'I did not come here to watch someone die. I came here to honor our sister, Patricia Miller,' he told reporters, shortly after a repentant Barnes died and refused his final meal, for which state officials had set aside a sanctioned $40.

 'No one should live in fear within the safety of their own home. No woman, no child, no animal should have that fear,' the deceased's relative added, citing how Barnes entered her condo through a bedroom window and repeatedly raped her.

The attack - which prosecutors said came after multiple, unspecified negative interactions between the pair - also saw a then 26-year-old Barnes beat her with her bathrobe belt, strike her head with a hammer, and set her bed on fire with her body on it to eliminate evidence. 

'We did,' her brother said.

Offering the comments at a news conference held after the execution, Miller said that the rest of his family sees similarities between his sister the case surrounding Barnes' other victim, his then estranged wife.

'The commonality between these two women? They were both hard-working professionals. They were someone's daughter. They were someone's sister. They were someone's mother,' Miller said.

He went on to praise the painstaking work of Melbourne's detectives, thanking them for sticking with the 1988 case that ultimately saw Barnes die and not giving up eve as the case became tangled in the Sunshine State's court system.

Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on the con's death warrant this past June, after he recently dropped all of his legal appeals and said he was set to accept his punishment after 16 years on death row 

Barnes' older sister, Beth Catron of Grant-Valkaria, last month told Florida Today 'her family is glad the nightmare will soon be over', adding 'maybe we’ll be able to sleep in peace.'

She declined to comment further following the con's actual execution, which was more than a decade and a half in the making.

About 20 witnesses - most of them family of the two victims - sat inside a white-walled rectangular viewing room to watch Barne's death, facing a large glass window that opened into the execution chamber.

At 6 p.m., the curtain behind the window opened to reveal Barnes, who reporters wrote could be seen lying on a gurney and covered by a white sheet. 

His left arm was exposed with IV tubes and secured with a brown strap, and at 6:01 pm - a minute past the scheduled time of execution - Barnes elected not to give a final statement.

The execution process then began, during which three suited men with earpieces observed the goings on from a few feet away. 

By 6:12pm, a doctor emerged to check Barnes' vital signs, and pronounced him dead at 6:13 pm.

Those watching from the viewing room reportedly remained silent throughout the process.

Later, Melbourne Police Chief David Gillespie later told Florida Today - which has followed the drugdealer-turned-Islam convert's case for more than a decade -  by email: 'James Barnes was a violent and ruthless criminal.'  

The officer went on to disclaim: 'While today's execution ensures he will never harm another individual again, let us not forget the victims and the torture they had endured. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.'