Margie Velma Barfield, who confessed to poisoning four people with arsenic, died by lethal injection in 1984. The "Death Row Grandma" was the first woman executed in the United States since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

Born Margie Bullard, she was the oldest girl in a family of eight children. She described her father Murray as an abusive parent who raped her when she was thirteen. However, her brothers and sisters denied her claims of childhood abuse.

At seventeen, Barfield eloped with Thomas Burke. In 1966, Burke was injured in an auto accident and lost his job, and Barfield struggled to support their two daughters. Eventually she had Burke committed to an alcoholism treatment program. By the time he returned home, Barfield had become addicted to prescription painkillers and tranquilizers. The couple began having frequent, bitter arguments. In 1969, Burke was found burned to death in his bed. Authorities...