South Carolina witnessed its first execution in over ten years on Friday, with the death of convicted murderer Freddie Owens. The execution followed a lengthy battle by prison officials to secure the necessary drugs for lethal injections. Owens was found guilty of murdering a convenience store clerk in Greenville during an unsuccessful robbery in 1997. While awaiting trial for this crime, Owens killed a fellow inmate at a county jail, a crime he admitted to, resulting in his death sentence.
In the execution chamber, Owens, 46, bid a simple “bye” to his attorney as he was secured onto a gurney, his arms spread out to his sides. He remained conscious for about a minute before his eyes closed and he began to breathe deeply. His breathing gradually became shallow and his face twitched for about five minutes before all movement ceased. A medical professional declared Owens dead a little over 10 minutes later at 6:55 p.m.
Owens’ numerous appeals were consistently denied, including a last-minute attempt to stay his execution filed in federal court on Friday morning. He also sought a stay of execution from the US Supreme Court. South Carolina’s governor and corrections director swiftly responded, urging the high court to dismiss Owens’ petition, arguing that there was nothing extraordinary about his case.
Owens’ execution occurred just days after a key witness confessed to lying on the stand about Owens’ presence at the convenience store during the 1997 robbery in which clerk Irene Graves was killed. Steven Golden, a former friend of Owens, claimed he had struck a secret deal with prosecutors and lied about Owens’ guilt to avoid the death penalty himself. Despite this revelation, it was not enough to spare Owens’ life.
Owens’ final hope was for South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life imprisonment. However, McMaster denied Owens’ request, stating that he had “carefully reviewed and thoughtfully considered” Owens’ clemency application. Owens was the first inmate to be executed in South Carolina in over a decade. Five other inmates have exhausted their appeals, and the South Carolina Supreme Court has paved the way for an execution every five weeks.
The state had attempted to introduce firing squads as an alternative execution method due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs. However, a shield law had to be passed in May to keep the drug supplier and much of the execution protocol confidential before executions could resume. State officials stated that the new lethal injection method follows the federal government’s process.
Owens was given the choice of his method of execution, as per South Carolina law. He could have chosen to die by firing squad or in an electric chair built in 1912. Owens was convicted of killing Irene Graves in 1999. Prosecutors said he shot the single mother of three in the head when she couldn’t open the store’s safe. After his conviction, but before he was sentenced in Graves’ killing, Owens fatally attacked a fellow jail inmate, Christopher Lee. Owens confessed in detail how he stabbed Lee, burned his eyes, choked and stomped him. He told authorities he did it “because I was wrongly convicted of murder,” according to the written account of an investigator. That detailed confession was read to each jury and judge who went on to sentence Owens to death. He had two different death sentences overturned on appeal only to end up back on death row.
In his final appeal, Owens’ lawyers argued that prosecutors never presented scientific evidence that Owens pulled the trigger on Graves. The chief evidence, they said, was based on Golden’s testimony. Owens’ lawyers also said he was just 19 when the killing happened and that he had suffered brain damage from physical and sexual violence while in a juvenile prison.