Freddie Owens is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection next week; it will be the state’s first execution in thirteen years. The South Carolina Supreme Court declined to stay the execution on Thursday.
The defense attorneys asked for new information about what they called a covert agreement that spared one of the defendants from death row or life in prison, and they asked the justices to consider requests from a juror who correctly assumed Owens was wearing a stun belt during his 1999 trial. The defense attorneys’ requests were unanimously denied.
The justices stated in their ruling that Owens’ death sentence was too harsh despite the evidence presented, arguing that the jury could not have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that Owens fired the shot that killed the convenience store clerk.
Once death row inmates have exhausted all of their appeals, the standard for granting fresh trials is typically high. According to Owens’ attorneys, prior counsel meticulously examined his case; nevertheless, this information was disclosed during interviews only as Owens’s death was imminent.
The choice maintains Owens’ scheduled execution at Columbia’s Broad River Correctional Institution on September 20.
The last execution in South Carolina occurred in May 2011. Although the state had no intention of stopping executions, its supply of pharmaceuticals for lethal injection ran out, and businesses refused to supply the state with more if the transaction was disclosed to the public.
It took ten years of backroom politics in the Legislature to reinstate the death penalty, first by introducing the firing squad as a tool and then by enacting a shield statute.
Irene Graves, a Greenville convenience store clerk, was killed in 1997, and Owens, 46, was given the death penalty. Steven Golden, a co-defendant, testified that Owens shot Graves in the head because she was unable to access the safe.
Although the store had CCTV footage, it didn’t provide a good picture of the incident. After Owens’ death sentence was overturned, prosecutors revealed that the man who killed the clerk was wearing a ski mask while the other man inside for the robbery was wearing a stocking mask. However, they never found the weapon used and did not present any scientific evidence linking Owens to the killing during his trial. They connected Owens to the ski mask as well.
According to court documents, Golden admitted guilt to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
During Owens’ trial, Golden testified that no agreement was reached to lessen his sentence. Golden made a side agreement with the prosecutors in a sworn statement signed on August 22, and Owens’ lawyers claimed that this could have influenced the jurors’ decision to accept his testimony.
Even if they thought Owens was the clerk’s killer—even if he didn’t kill her—the state Supreme Court stated in its ruling that the evidence wasn’t strong enough to prevent Owens’ execution.
The justices observed, “By intentionally participating in a criminal conduct that entails a significant danger of death, he showed a reckless disregard for human life.” He was a prominent participant in the murder and armed robbery.
At least one more chance remains for Owens to save his demise. The only person who can lower Owens’ sentence to life in prison is Governor Henry McMaster.
The governor has said that he will adhere to long-standing custom and hold off on making his announcement until just before the execution when prison authorities will make a call from the death chamber. As a former prosecutor, McMaster told reporters that while he hasn’t made up his mind regarding Owens’ case, he respects the choices made by juries and courts.
According to McMaster, “When the law is obeyed, there really is just one solution.”
Opponents of the death sentence gathered outside of McMaster’s office earlier on Thursday to call on him to become the first governor of South Carolina to give mercy since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976.
The Rev. Hillary Taylor, Executive Director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, stated, “There is always hope.” “No one is unredeemable. The worst thing you have ever done does not define you.
Taylor and others brought up the fact that Owens was 19 years old when he killed the clerk and that he is Black in a state where Black prisoners have been executed at a disproportionate rate.
“No one ought to murder someone. Not even South Carolina state. The Rev. David Kennedy of the NAACP Laurens County chapter stated, “Only God can do that.”