South Carolina readies for first execution in over a decade | Execution

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is about to execute its first inmate in 13 years after an unintended pause as a result of the state couldn't get hold of the medicine wanted for deadly injections.

Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is scheduled to die simply after 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia jail. He was convicted of the 1997 killing of a clerk who couldn't get the secure open at a comfort retailer in Greenville.

Owens’ last-ditch appeals have been denied. His final likelihood to keep away from dying is for Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life in jail.

McMaster mentioned he'll observe historic custom and announce his resolution minutes earlier than the deadly injection begins when jail officers name him and the state lawyer normal to ensure there isn't a purpose to delay the execution. The former prosecutor promised to assessment Owens’ clemency petition however has mentioned he tends to belief prosecutors and juries.

Owens could be the first of a number of inmates to die in the state’s dying chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution. Five different inmates are out of appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the best way to carry an execution each 5 weeks.

South Carolina first tried so as to add the firing squad to restart executions after its provide of deadly injection medicine expired and no firm was prepared to publicly promote them extra. But the state needed to go a defend regulation retaining the drug provider and far of the protocol for executions secret to have the ability to reopen the dying chamber.

To perform executions, the state switched from a three-drug technique to a new protocol of utilizing simply the sedative pentobarbital. The new course of is much like how the federal authorities kills inmates, in line with state jail officers.

South Carolina regulation permits condemned inmates to decide on deadly injection, the brand new firing squad or the electrical chair constructed in 1912. Owens allowed his lawyer to select how he died, saying he felt if he made the selection he can be a celebration to his personal dying and his non secular beliefs denounce suicide.

Owens modified his identify to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah whereas in jail however courtroom and jail information proceed to discuss with him as Owens.

Owens was convicted of killing Irene Graves in 1999. But hanging over his case is one other killing: After his conviction, however earlier than he was sentenced in Graves’ killing, Owens fatally attacked a fellow jail inmate, Christopher Lee.

Owens gave a detailed confession about how he stabbed Lee, burned his eyes, choked and stomped him, ending by saying he did it “because I was wrongly convicted of murder,” in line with the written account of an investigator.

That confession was learn to every jury and choose who went on to condemn Owens to dying. Owens had two totally different dying sentences overturned on attraction solely to finish up again on dying row.

Owens was charged with homicide in Lee’s dying however was by no means tried. Prosecutors dropped the fees with the appropriate to revive them in 2019 across the time Owens ran out of normal appeals.

In his ultimate attraction, Owens’ attorneys mentioned prosecutors by no means introduced scientific proof that Owens pulled the set off when Graves was killed and the chief proof in opposition to him was a co-defendant who pleaded responsible and testified that Owens was the killer.

Owens’ attorneys offered a sworn assertion two days earlier than the execution from Steven Golden saying Owens was not in the shop, contradicting his trial testimony. Prosecutors mentioned different pals of Owens and his former girlfriend testified that he bragged about killing the clerk.

“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit. We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens,” lawyer Gerald “Bo” King mentioned in a assertion.

Owens’ attorneys additionally mentioned he was simply 19 when the killing occurred and that he had suffered mind injury from bodily and sexual violence whereas in a juvenile jail.

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty plans a vigil outdoors the jail about 90 minutes earlier than Owens is scheduled to die.

South Carolina’s last execution was in May 2011. It took a decade of wrangling in the Legislature — first including the firing squad as a technique and later passing a defend regulation — to get capital punishment restarted.

South Carolina has put 43 inmates to dying for the reason that dying penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was finishing up a mean of three executions a yr. Only 9 states have put extra inmates to dying.

But for the reason that unintentional execution pause, South Carolina’s dying row inhabitants has dwindled. The state had 63 condemned inmates in early 2011. It had 32 when Friday began. About 20 inmates have been taken off dying row and obtained totally different jail sentences after profitable appeals. Others have died of pure causes.