Nation James Barnes, Florida man who dropped appeals, executed for 1988 hammer killing of nurse August 3, 2023 Rick Neale and Minnah Arshad, USA TODAY NETWORK Comments Off on James Barnes, Florida man who dropped appeals, executed for 1988 hammer killing of nurse James Barnes, 61, was executed on Thursday for the brutal murder of Patricia "Patsy" Miller, a nurse, inside her Melbourne, Florida, home in 1988.