September 21st 2024.
On Friday, the state of South Carolina executed inmate Freddie Owens, marking the first execution in 13 years. This comes after a long pause in executions due to difficulties in obtaining the necessary drugs for lethal injections. Owens, who was convicted of the 1997 killing of a convenience store clerk during a robbery, had also confessed to another murder while on trial. This confession was read to multiple juries and a judge, all of whom sentenced him to death.
At 46 years old, Owens made no final statement before his execution. His last meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, french fries, a well-done ribeye steak, six chicken wings, two strawberry soft drinks, and a slice of apple pie. When the curtain to the death chamber opened, Owens was strapped to a gurney with his arms stretched to his sides. After the drug was administered, he said goodbye to his lawyer, who also bid farewell to him. Owens smiled slightly, and his facial expression remained unchanged for about a minute before he appeared to lose consciousness. His eyes closed, and he took several deep breaths before his breathing gradually became shallower and stopped altogether. A doctor declared him dead 10 minutes later at 6:55pm.
Owens' appeals to avoid execution were repeatedly denied, including by a federal court on the morning of his execution. He also petitioned for a stay of execution from the US Supreme Court, but this was swiftly rejected by South Carolina's governor and corrections director. Owens' last hope to avoid death was for the governor to commute his sentence to life in prison, but this request was also denied. The governor stated that he had carefully reviewed and considered Owens' application for clemency.
Owens may be the first of several people to be executed in the state's death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution. Five other inmates have exhausted all appeals, and the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way for an execution to take place every five weeks. In order to resume executions, the state had to pass a law to keep the supplier of the lethal injection drugs and the details of the execution process confidential.
South Carolina now uses a new protocol for executions, which involves using just the sedative pentobarbital. This method is similar to how the federal government carries out executions on death row inmates. The state also offers inmates the choice between lethal injection, the electric chair built in 1912, or the firing squad. Owens allowed his lawyer to choose the method of his execution, stating that he did not want to be a party to his own death, as his religious beliefs prohibit suicide.
Owens changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while in prison, but court and prison records still refer to him as Owens. He was convicted of killing Irene Graves in 1999 during a robbery at the convenience store where she worked. Prosecutors argued that he shot her in the head when she could not open the store's safe. However, there was another murder hanging over his case. After his conviction in Graves' killing, but before he was sentenced, Owens attacked and killed another inmate, Christopher Lee, at a county jail. He gave a detailed confession, stating that he did it because he was wrongly convicted of murder.
Owens' final appeal argued that there was no scientific evidence to prove that he pulled the trigger in Graves' murder. The main evidence against him was the testimony of a co-defendant who pleaded guilty and claimed that Owens was the killer. However, two days before his execution, a sworn statement from another witness surfaced, contradicting this testimony. Owens' attorneys also argued that he had brain damage from years of physical and sexual violence in a juvenile prison. Despite these arguments, his execution proceeded as planned.
The execution of Freddie Owens marks the restart of the death penalty in South Carolina after a 13-year hiatus. The state has put 43 people to death since the death penalty was reinstated in the US in 1976. However, in recent years, the state's death row population has dwindled due to successful appeals and natural deaths. Owens' execution brings the current number of inmates on death row to 31.
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