South Carolina justices refuse to cease state's first execution in 13 years

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Courtroom on Thursday refused to cease the execution of Freddie Owens who is about to die by deadly injection subsequent week within the state’s first execution in 13 years.

The justices unanimously tossed out two requests from protection legal professionals who stated a courtroom wanted to listen to new details about what they referred to as a secret deal that stored a co-defendant off demise row or from serving life in jail and a couple of juror who appropriately surmised Owens was carrying a stun belt at his 1999 trial.

That proof, plus an argument that Owens’ demise sentence was too harsh as a result of a jury by no means conclusively decided he pulled the set off on the shot that killed a comfort retailer clerk, didn’t attain the “distinctive circumstances” wanted to permit Owens one other enchantment, the justices wrote of their order.

The bar is often excessive to grant new trials after demise row inmates deplete all their appeals. Owens’ legal professionals stated previous attorneys scrutinized his case rigorously, however this solely got here up in interviews because the potential of his demise neared.

The choice retains on monitor the planned execution of Owens on Sept. 20 on the Broad River Correctional Establishment in Columbia.

South Carolina’s last execution was in Could 2011. The state didn’t got down to pause executions, however its provide of deadly injection medication expired and firms refused to promote the state extra if the transaction was made public.

It took a decade of wrangling within the Legislature — first including the firing squad as a way and later passing a defend regulation — to get capital punishment restarted.

Owens, 46, was sentenced to demise for killing comfort retailer clerk Irene Graves in Greenville in 1997. Co-defendant Steven Golden testified Owens shot Graves within the head as a result of she couldn’t get the protected open.

There was surveillance video within the retailer, however it didn’t present the capturing clearly. Prosecutors by no means discovered the weapon used and didn’t current any scientific proof linking Owens to the killing at his trial, though after Owens’ demise sentence was overturned, prosecutors confirmed the person who killed the clerk was carrying a ski masks whereas the opposite man inside for the theft had a stocking masks. In addition they linked the ski masks to Owens.

Golden was sentenced to twenty-eight years in jail after pleading responsible to a lesser cost of voluntary manslaughter, in accordance with courtroom data.

Golden testified at Owens’ trial that there was no deal to scale back his sentence. In a sworn assertion signed Aug. 22, Golden stated he reduce a facet take care of prosecutors, and Owens’ attorneys stated which may have modified the minds of jurors who believed his testimony.

The state Supreme Courtroom stated in its order that wasn’t compelling sufficient to cease Owens’ execution, and whereas they believed the proof that Owens was the clerk’s killer, even when he didn’t kill her it, wasn’t sufficient to cease his demise.

“He was a significant participant within the homicide and armed theft who confirmed a reckless disregard for human life by knowingly participating in a felony exercise that carries a grave danger of demise,” the justices wrote.

Owens has a minimum of yet one more likelihood at stopping his demise. Gov. Henry McMaster alone has the ability to scale back Owens’ sentence to life in jail.

The governor has stated he’ll observe longtime custom and never announce his determination till jail officers make a name from the demise chamber minutes earlier than the execution. McMaster instructed reporters he hasn’t determined what to do in Owens’ case however as a former prosecutor, he respects jury verdicts and courtroom selections.

“When the rule of regulation has been adopted, there actually is just one reply,” McMaster stated.

Earlier Thursday, opponents of the demise penalty gathered outdoors McMaster’s workplace to induce him to grow to be the primary South Carolina governor because the demise penalty was restarted within the U.S. in 1976 to grant clemency.

“There’s all the time hope,” stated the Rev. Hillary Taylor, Govt Director of South Carolinians for Options to the Dying Penalty. “No one is past redemption. You’re greater than the worst factor you could have accomplished.”

Taylor and others identified Owens is Black in a state the place a disproportionate variety of executed inmates have been Black and was 19 years previous when he killed the clerk.

“Nobody ought to take a life. Not even the state of South Carolina. Solely God can do this,” stated the Rev. David Kennedy of the Laurens County chapter of the NAACP.