Execution rescheduled for Texas man accused of killing pregnant girlfriend, 7-year-old
The Fort Worth man convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and her son has been rescheduled to be executed Nov. 16 after his execution was stayed by a judge last year, according to records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
Stephen Barbee, 55, was charged in 2006 with capital murder in the 2005 murders of 34-year-old Lisa Underwood, who was pregnant, and her son, 7-year-old Jayden. Police said Barbee admitted to the killings, but Barbee has since said he was coerced into the confession and that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated when his lawyers went against his wishes to maintain his innocence.
Barbee has maintained his innocence since his conviction.
Investigators said that Barbee killed Underwood while believing the unborn child was his and would ruin his new marriage. DNA evidence later proved the baby wasn’t Barbee’s.
He was accused by prosecutors of suffocating Underwood and then doing the same to Jayden when Jayden heard the attack and walked in on it.
When detectives first brought him in for questioning, Barbee said he hadn’t seen Underwood for months. But when he went to the bathroom alone with a detective, police said that he admitted to the killing. The conversation wasn’t recorded, and Barbee later said it was coerced.
The order to stay the execution last year left Underwood’s mother, Sheila, who was planning on attending the execution, questioning when she, and her family, will “finally receive justice.”
“I’ve forgiven Stephen. I really have in my heart, but there’s a difference between forgiveness and justice, and my family deserves justice,” Sheila Underwood told the Star-Telegram in 2021. “My thinking was, he watched my family take their last breath, I will watch him take his last breath.”
Underwood was unsure if witnessing the execution would make her feel better, but said that she “owed it” to her late daughter, grandson and herself “to see that it was done.”
“You have your ups and downs. Some days you’re good, other days it’s hard. It’s a never-ending cycle you can’t get off,” Underwood said in 2021, referencing the multiple appeals over the last 15 years that have reopened the wound of losing her only child and grandchild. “It would be justice, and finally being done.”
“Staying Barbee’s execution will allow time to explore and resolve serious factual issues concerning the balance between his religious rights and the prison’s valid concerns for security,” the judge’s 2021 order stated. “The state may not carry out Barbee’s execution until the state allows his chosen spiritual advisor in the execution chamber, authorizes contact between Barbee and his spiritual advisor, and allows his spiritual advisor to pray during the execution.”
Five other death row inmates in Texas have executions scheduled through March 2023:
- John Ramirez, Oct. 5, convicted of killing a man during a robbery in Corpus Christi
- Tracy Beatty, Nov. 9, convicted of killing his mother in Whitehouse
- Wesley Ruiz, Feb. 1, 2023, convicted of killing a police officer in Dallas
- Gary Green, March 7, 2023, convicted of killing his wife and her 6-year-old daughter in Oak Cliff
- Arthur Brown Jr., March 9, 2023, convicted of killing four people at a home in Houston
This story includes information from the Star-Telegram archives.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 6:29 PM.
CORRECTION: Stephen Barbee’s execution date is Nov. 16. The date was incorrect in an earlier version.