Woman on Death Row

By Velma Barfield

Book Overview

The story of a woman who spent her life disregarding the law and the Lord, but found salvation through Christ while on death row, and shared her testimony and her story and changed the lives of those... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0840795319
• ISBN13: 9780840795311
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson Inc
• Length: 175 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Is Redemption Possible?

That's the question this book made me ask. Velma Barfield's case reminded me a great deal of the heavily publicized lead-up to the execution of Karla Faye Tucker of Texas who admitted her crimes, and by all outward appearances reformed, (found religion) but it was not enough to save her life. Velma or "Mama Margie" fully blames the pills that she was addicted to for her actions. She glosses over her crimes, blaming her hazy drug-blurred memory. Her victims are never characterized as anything more than irritating alcoholics, or overbearing elderly crones who demanded too much from her. We don't get any sense of their suffering or pain. She wants us to believe that there was no premeditation or really much thought at all given to the murders. Overall the book is very well written but left me scratching my head, I was hoping to get a look inside a killer's mind, but I came away with very little insight.

Not Your Ordinary Author!

...Velma Barfield's life in her own words....She was very honest and straightforward--yet, confused about certain parts of her life, as if they were so awful that she had blotted them out.It was hard to believe that the unassuming, faith-filled mother and grandma who was sharing her story with me could be the same one who had killed so many people.Yet, the people were dead and buried--and, long before I read this book, so was Velma Barfield.But was it the arsenic-giving woman that was legally-murdered by the state of North Carolina? Or had they killed a new creation who could have lived much longer and could have continued to help and support others.The one who committed the crimes was a woman with a lot of emotional scars that had surfaced after she had been given both an unnecessary hysterectomy and pain-killers to help her through her recovery from being hit by a hit-and-run driver.The one who was killed several years later had come out of her drugged haze and had rededicated her life to Jesus--and knowing Him in a more mature and real way than she ever had in her entire life!I oppose capital punishment. Always have and always will. Don't tell me that I'd feel differently if somebody I knew and loved was murdered, because it has already happened--several times, with one of those times being a man I used to date!We need to be better than the criminal in how we treat others--and we need to also realize that people CAN change, even if they can only make a difference from a prison cell for the rest of their lives. Life has value!As I read this book, I thought how wonderful it would be if Velma Barfield were still reaching out and encouraging people from her prison cell, and I wonder how her kids and grandkids are doing now...

Great book! You will not be able to put if down.

I would love to find another copy to share with others. Velma's life story changed my thinking toward people who are prescription drup abusers. I will never be the same. Everyone needs to read it.