South Carolina inmate Freddie Eugene Owens is about to bear the state’s first execution in 13 years, a few 12 months after the state obtained the required medicine to hold out a deadly injection.
Owens was convicted of murdering Irene Graves, a 41-year-old mom of three kids who was shot throughout a theft whereas she was working in a single day at a comfort retailer in Greenville on November 1, 1997.
Owens, who was 19 on the time, has maintained his innocence within the case and over the previous 27 years has filed motions asking the court docket to halt the execution and has requested clemency from Gov. Henry McMaster (R).
Holding with custom, McMaster stated he’ll in the end announce his clemency choice in a telephone name with the jail moments earlier than Owens’ scheduled deadly injection begin time, in accordance with the Related Press.
Nevertheless, no governor has granted clemency to a loss of life row inmate since 1976, and McMaster praised the Supreme Courtroom’s choice to uphold the loss of life sentence this summer season.
“The Supreme Court has rightfully upheld the rule of law,” the governor stated. “This decision is another step in ensuring that lawful sentences can be duly enforced and the families and loved ones of the victims receive the closure and justice they have long awaited.”
This week, the Supreme Courtroom once more refused to halt the execution, regardless of new testimony from his co-defendant denying that Owens was there the night time of the killing.
Nevertheless, Owens has admitted to a different homicide, detailing the killing of his former cellmate, Christopher Lee, earlier than he was convicted within the Graves case. Owens blamed the act on years of abuse as a juvenile from his father and different inmates in jail previous to this conviction.
“I’m as fragile as a child,” Owens wrote in letters to his former girlfriend Aisha when he was first incarcerated.
Owens is scheduled to be executed by deadly injection at 6 p.m. on Friday on the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina.
The execution was delayed for years as a result of the medicine wanted for a deadly injection weren’t accessible, and procedures for a firing squad have been nonetheless being finalized. House owners and his legal professionals argued the third technique, electrical chair, was merciless and weird.
The state obtained the deadly injection medicine in September 2023.
The Hill has reached out to all events concerned for remark.
