RAIFORD, Fla. — A Florida man convicted of fatally stabbing a 24-year-old woman at her apartment 36 years ago was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday.

>> Read more trending news

Darryl B. Barwick, 56, was executed at the Florida State Prison in Raiford. He was pronounced dead at 6:14 p.m. EDT, the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

Barwick is the 102nd prisoner to be put to death and the first in Bay County since capital punishment was reinstated in Florida in 1976, according to WMBB-TV. DeSantis signed his death warrant on April 4, the Pensacola News Journal reported. It is the third execution in the state this year after a four-year break and the fifth since DeSantis became governor.

“It’s time to apologize to the victim’s family, to my family. I can’t explain why I did what I did,” Barwick said before he was injected with the lethal three-drug cocktail at 6:02 p.m. EDT, the News Journal reported.

The victim’s family did not attend the execution and none of Barwick’s family or friends were in attendance.

On Friday, Barwick’s attorneys had appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court and asked for a stay of execution, citing “the state’s failure” to give him a fair chance at clemency, WMBB-TV reported. The Supreme Court denied that final appeal earlier Wednesday.

Barwick had his last meal at 9:15 a.m., according to the News Journal. He chose fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas and cornbread. His drink of choice was a Coca-Cola.

Barwick confessed to fatally stabbing Rebecca Wendt, 24, in her Panama City apartment on March 31, 1986, the News Journal reported. Barwick, who was 19 at the time, told police he was watching Wendt sunbathe outside and followed her back to her apartment.

Barwick said he intended to rob Wendt but then killed her when she resisted, stabbing her 37 times, according to the newspaper.

Barwick was convicted of first-degree murder, armed burglary, attempted sexual battery and armed robbery in November 1986, according to The Associated Press. A jury sentenced him to death two months later by a 9-3 margin.

The Florida Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 1989 due to prosecutorial misconduct, according to the news organization.

After a new trial Barwick was convicted again in 1992 and sentenced to death a second time after a unanimous jury recommendation, the News Journal reported.

Donald Dillbeck was the first prisoner executed in Florida since 2019 on Feb. 23. Dillbeck had been convicted of murdering Faye Vann, 44, in 1990, after he escaped from prison, fatally stabbing her in a Tallahassee shopping mall parking lot in an attempted carjacking.

Louis Bernard Gaskin, 56, was executed by lethal injection on April 12. Gaskin was put to death for the murders of Robert Sturmfels, 56, and Georgette Sturmfels, 55, who were killed on Dec. 20, 1989, in their Flagler County winter home. Gaskin was dubbed the “ninja killer” because he dressed in black clothing on the night of the murders.

Florida administers executions by lethal injection or electric chair, according to the News Journal. In 2000, then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed legislation making lethal injection the state’s default method of execution. The last inmate Florida executed by electrocution was Allen Davis in July 1999, according to the newspaper

From 1976 to 1999 there were 44 prisoners executed by the electric chair, according to the News Journal. Before Wednesday’s execution, 57 prisoners in the state had been put to death by lethal injection.