Jonathan Nwokpor
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Freddie Owens, 46, who was found guilty of murder in 1999, received a fatal injection in South Carolina’s first execution in 13 years.
When Owens killed Irene Graves, a shop employee, in a 1997 armed robbery in Greenville, he received the death penalty.
The South Carolina Supreme Court refused to stop the execution of Owens despite a last-minute sworn testimony by his co-defendant, Steve Golden, asserting that Owens was not there during the crime.
The new statement was found by the court to be in conflict with Golden’s 1999 trial testimony, which stated that Graves was shot by Owens after she neglected to open a safe during the robbery.
On Friday night, Owens was put to death at Columbia’s Broad River Correctional Institute. He was given a fatal pentobarbital injection, and at 6:55 p.m. local time (10:55 p.m. GMT), he was declared dead. He declined to say anything more conclusively.
Following a 13-year pause during which South Carolina battled to get the medications required for fatal injections, the execution signalled the end of the period. In 1999, Owens—who was 19 at the time of the offense—was given a death sentence. He killed his cellmate the day following his conviction, adding to his already lengthy criminal history.
Owens’s attorneys attempted twice to stay the execution in September, claiming that Golden’s affidavit provided fresh proof of Owens’ innocence. But the court dismissed the appeals, noting that Golden’s most recent allegations ran counter to both his earlier testimony and the remarks he made right after being taken into custody.
Additionally, the prosecution cited several witnesses who said that Owens had confessed to killing Graves, a 41-year-old single mother of three children.
Governor Henry McMaster rejected the clemency request made by Owens’ mother, Dora Mason, who opposes the death punishment.
Mason referred to the procedure as a “grave injustice” in a speech she made a few hours before her son was executed.
Inmates in South Carolina have the option of being executed by firing squad, electric chair, or lethal injection. Owens left it to his attorney, who decided on a death injection.
Journalists who covered the execution claimed to have seen relatives of Irene Graves there.
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