South Carolina set to carry out its first execution in 13 years after securing medication needed for lethal injection

By Ashley R. Williams, CNN

(CNN) — South Carolina plans to move forward on Friday with the execution of Freddie Owens, an inmate convicted in the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk who would become the first person on death row to die at the hands of the state in 13 years.

Owens, 46, is scheduled to be put to death for the killing of Irene Graves, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. The state’s supreme court on Thursday again declined to halt the execution.

Owens has requested clemency from Gov. Henry McMaster, according to the Associated Press. If McMaster chooses not to grant it on Friday, Owens’ state-mandated death will mark the state’s first by lethal injection since it regained access to the medication required to perform the procedure following nearly a decade of lethal injection supply issues.

Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three children, was working an overnight shift at a store in Greenville on November 1, 1997, when she was shot and killed during a robbery, CNN affiliate WHNS reported.

Owens was 19 at the time of Graves’ killing, the AP reported. He was sentenced to death two years later after being convicted of murder, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy, the corrections department said.

Owens also confessed to killing a cellmate in 1999 while awaiting sentencing following his conviction, WHNS reported.

McMaster said he will announce his clemency decision in a phone call with the prison moments before Owens’ scheduled lethal injection start time, the AP reported. No one facing execution in South Carolina has been granted clemency by a governor since 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

On Thursday evening, for the second time this month, the South Carolina Supreme Court refused to halt Owens’ execution despite a new affidavit signed Wednesday by his co-defendant, Steven Golden, who now claims Owens was not present at the time of the robbery and killing, court documents show.

Owens filed separate motions on August 30 and September 5 asking the court to halt the Friday execution. The court said it denied both motions on September 12 and saw no reason on Thursday to reconsider their decision.

Golden’s affidavit also claimed that he himself was not the gunman but “swears he knows the person’s identity,” according to a court order.

“This new affidavit is squarely inconsistent with Golden’s testimony at Owens’ 1999 trial, at the first resentencing trial in 2003, and in the statement he gave law enforcement officers immediately after he participated in committing the crimes in 1997,” the order reads.

The court also noted Owens previously confessed to five people, including two law enforcement officers and his girlfriend.

The South Carolina Supreme Court issued an execution order for Owens to the state’s corrections department on August 23.

Owens was asked to choose between lethal injection, the electric chair and firing squad two weeks ago, according to the corrections department, but instead granted his attorney, Emily Paavola, the power to make the decision, court documents show.

Paavola chose the lethal injection option for her client, according to the documents.

CNN has reached out to Owens’ attorneys for a comment.

Execution rescheduled from 2021

Owens’ execution had been scheduled for June 25, 2021, but the process was halted that month after the state supreme court blocked the executions of Owens and another death row inmate, Brad Sigmon, CNN previously reported.

The court ordered a pause on their executions while procedures for the state’s newest method of capital punishment at the time – death by firing squad – were finalized.

A South Carolina law went into effect in May 2021 allowing inmates to choose between execution by the electric chair or by a firing squad if lethal injection drugs weren’t available, according to the South Carolina Legislature.

Amid the state’s lethal injection medication supply issues at the time and with the firing squad method not yet established, death by electrocution was the only method of execution, the AP reported. Owens’ and Sigmon’s attorneys argued that the state’s 109-year-old electrocution method was cruel and unusual, according to the AP.

South Carolina officials said in September 2023 they were prepared to resume lethal injections after acquiring the necessary drugs.

Owens’ execution is scheduled to take place at around 6 p.m.

CNN’s Jamiel Lynch and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

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