South Carolina Inmate Defers Execution Method Choice to Lawyer due to Religious Belief
Execution to Proceed by Lethal Injection
In a unique development in South Carolina’s death row cases, prisoner Freddie Owens, 46, allowed his lawyer to choose his execution method, opting for lethal injection. This decision was essentially forced on Owens who stated that per his Muslim faith, he would be participating in his own suicide by choosing his means of capital punishment, a sin.
Owens’ execution is scheduled for 20th September 2024, marking the first execution in South Carolina in over 13 years. Owens was convicted for the 1997 killing of store clerk Irene Graves during a string of robberies in the Greenville region.
Concerns of Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Owens’ attorney, Emily Paavola, emphasized in her statement that she hopes prison officials have given enough information on the lethal drug’s viability to ensure a humane execution. The concern stems from the unavailability of lethal injection drugs in recent years, which led to an involuntary pause in executions. Should Paavola not have chosen an execution method, Owens would have legally been put to death by electric chair, a fate he wished to avoid.
Pharmacological Secrecy Breaches?
South Carolina, once leading the country in executions, has struggled to maintain its lethal injection supply due to pharmaceutical companies’ reluctance to disclose their supply to state officials. Last year, the state legislature passed a shield law enabling officials to keep the supplies private. Consequently, the state Supreme Court also greenlighted alternate execution methods like the electric chair and firing squad. South Carolina previously used a three-drug mixture for lethal injections, but now only one – the sedative pentobarbital will be used.
Fights for Stay of Execution
The legal team representing Owens, who is one of six inmates exhausting their appeals to avoid execution, has embarked on various legal motions to seek a delay. A request for a delay in execution was initially forwarded so that the defense could argue that Owens’ co-defendant lied about a plea deal to testify against him. Co-defendant Steven Golden previously testified that it was Owens who shot Graves because she could not open the store safe. Legal battles over the reliability of co-defendant testimonies have plagued the case since Golden was sentenced to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter and served 28 years.
In desperate attempts to postpone the execution, Owens’ lawyers asked for more information about the lethal injection drug. The defense raised concerns about the stability, purity, and potency of the pentobarbital set to be utilized. However, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that enough information was disclosed to the defense.
The Final Verdict?
The only potential respite for Owens now would be the governor granting clemency and reducing the death sentence to life imprisonment. However, no governor has done so for the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty reinstatement in 1976. Republican Governor Henry McMaster has maintained he will follow long-standing tradition and only announce his decision moments before the execution.
