South Carolina executed inmate Freddie Owens, 46, for the 1997 killing of a store clerk during a robbery. Owens confessed to the crime, as well as to killing a fellow inmate while in jail. Despite last-ditch appeals, Owens was put to death through lethal injection and pronounced dead after about 10 minutes.
The state restarted executions after a 13-year pause due to a lack of lethal injection drugs. South Carolina now offers a choice between lethal injection, the electric chair, or the firing squad. Owens allowed his lawyer to choose his method of execution.
Owens’ legal team argued that he did not commit the murder and presented evidence contradicting the prosecution’s case. They also highlighted his difficult childhood and brain damage as mitigating factors.
South Carolina’s previous execution was in 2011, and it took a long process in the Legislature to resume capital punishment, including adding the firing squad as a method and passing a shield law. The state has executed 43 people since 1976, with Owens being the first in a series of upcoming executions.
Owens’ death reduces the state’s death row population to 31, with several inmates having their sentences commuted or dying of natural causes. This marks the beginning of a potential increase in executions in South Carolina.
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