"I'm Sorry for the Hurt": Velma Barfield on Death Row, 1984

Weeks before her execution, Velma Barfield spoke from a cell across from the execution chamber about isolation, the years of drug addiction she blamed for her crimes, her faith, and her remorse.

Subject

Velma Barfield

Recorded

about November 2, 1984

Runtime

2:09

Content warning: Concerns the poisoning deaths of several people, including the subject's mother, and an impending execution.

The Interview

In 1984, in the weeks before her execution, a television news crew interviewed Velma Barfield at Central Prison in Raleigh, North Carolina. The report that survives runs just over two minutes and mixes the reporter's narration with four short passages of Barfield speaking. She describes the isolation of her new cell, blames years of addiction to tranquilizers, says her faith had sustained her, and says she is sorry for the hurt she has caused.

Historical Context

Barfield was convicted in December 1978 of the first-degree murder of her fiance, Stuart Taylor, whom she had poisoned with arsenic, and was sentenced to death. She also admitted poisoning her mother, Lillie Bullard, Dollie Edwards, an elderly woman she had cared for, and John Henry Lee; some sources add Dollie's husband, Montgomery Edwards. She was suspected in the death of her second husband, Jennings Barfield, and denied it. On November 2, 1984, she was executed by lethal injection at Central Prison, the first woman executed in the United States after the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

Circumstances of the Interview

According to the report, Barfield had been held at the women's prison in Raleigh. Shortly before this interview, corrections officials moved her to Central Prison, citing security, where she was the only woman prisoner, in a cell across from the execution chamber. Her case had become a national story: her appeal for clemency went to Governor Jim Hunt during his 1984 Senate campaign against Jesse Helms, and Hunt refused it. The report says her attorney would not let her discuss whether she knew what she was doing at the time of the crimes.

What the Interview Covers

Barfield says the move to Central Prison cut her off from the women she had lived with for almost six years, and that her first week there was the worst she had spent. She describes the previous ten years as years lost to drugs, days of not knowing where she was or what she had done. She says that every day in prison is a struggle and that without God she could not have made it so far. She ends by saying she is sorry for the hurt she has caused so many people and wishes she could take it on herself.

What Makes the Recording Significant

This is short footage of Barfield speaking on camera from death row in the last weeks of her life. Her words of remorse here are close to her last statement before her execution, in which she apologised for the hurt she had caused.

Archival Importance

Barfield's case drew national attention as the first execution of a woman in the United States in more than twenty years, and it became an issue in a closely fought Senate race. The report preserves her own account of her addiction, her faith and her remorse, in the form in which the public heard it in 1984.

Important Caveats

Barfield's account of addiction and conversion is her own; the report notes that she was not allowed to say whether she knew what she was doing at the time of the crimes. The report's count of "three other people" matches some sources; others say she admitted poisoning four. Sources disagree on her date and place of birth (October 23 or 29, 1932), so no birth date is given here. The upload is an edited news report, not the full interview, and the station is not identified.

Reporter: Velma Barfield was convicted and sentenced to die in 1978 for the poisoning death of her boyfriend. She also admitted poisoning three other people, including her mother. Barfield had been awaiting her sentence in the women's correctional facility in Raleigh. But last week, for security reasons, say corrections officials, she was moved to Raleigh's Central Prison, where she is the only woman prisoner. She now waits in virtual isolation in a cell just across from the execution chamber, a constant reminder, she says, of her likely fate.

Velma Barfield: It's total, you know, isolation from everybody that I had been with for almost six years. The first week I was here was the worst week that I have spent.

Reporter: Barfield says drugs led her to prison. She became addicted to tranquilizers, she says, during a rocky period in her life.

Velma Barfield: The last ten years was just like that, uh, years of a [unclear: "drug nightmare" / "drugged night man"], days of not knowing where you are or what you've done.

Reporter: Her attorney would not allow her to say whether she knew what she was doing when she committed her crimes. But once confined in prison, Barfield says, she found God. It's her relationship with God, she says, that has enabled her to survive her confinement.

Velma Barfield: [unclear: "Everything" / "Living"] in prison every day is a struggle, even at its best. And, um, I know that without Him, and His strength that has sustained me, I couldn't have made it even [unclear: "thus far" / "this far"].

Reporter: Now drug-free, a repentant Barfield says she regrets the pain she has caused others.

Velma Barfield: I'm sorry for the hurt that I've caused so many people. Um, today, if it were possible, I wish that I could take every bit of hurt on myself. ---