August 31, 1995

Barry Lee Fairchild became the eleventh Arkansan put to death under the state’s modern capital punishment statute, despite controversy over the methods used to extract a confession that was later repudiated by Fairchild. On February 26, 1983, Arkansas state troopers had pursued a car driven by two black men who managed to abandon their car and run away. The car was later identified as belonging to a twenty-two-year-old U.S. Air Force nurse, who had been raped and shot twice in the head. Six days later, police had arrested brothers Robert and Barry Lee Fairchild based on information provided by an unreliable informant. Robert was questioned but denied any involvement in the crime and was never charged.

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