South Carolina executes a man for first time in 13 years despite new testimony hints at his innocence

Freddie Owens, a death row inmate from South Carolina, became the first person to be killed by the state in thirteen years. But the execution took place a few days after the prosecution’s main witness came forward and confessed to lying throughout the trial. The witness argued that an innocent guy was being executed by the state.

According to the Associated Press, the 46-year-old prisoner received a fatal injection and was declared dead at 6:55 p.m. (local time). Owens’s attorneys filed an emergency request earlier this week, citing fresh evidence that seemed to indicate his conviction was erroneous. But the South Carolina Supreme Court turned down the plea, and the Republican governor, Henry McMaster, declared just before the death penalty that he would not be granting clemency.

When the curtain opened to let the media witness the execution, Owens was cuffed to a gurney in the death chamber. About a minute after the shot, he seemed to mouth “goodbye” to his teammates and passed out. Although Owens’s death was the first in South Carolina for 13 years, it may have sparked a swift succession of executions in the months to come. Owens was offered the option of a firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection by the state prior to the process. He insisted that approving a method would be suicide and would go against his Muslim faith, thus he objected to that.

In the end, his lawyer decided on a fatal injection for him. It’s important to remember that in November 1997, convenience store cashier Irene Graves was killed and robbed with an armed weapon by Owen. At the time, Graves was a 41-year-old mother of three, and he was 19 years old. Owens insisted on his innocence throughout the robbery, even though the cashier was shot dead in the head.

Although there was surveillance footage of two masked men with firearms at the store, the prosecutors pursuing the case lacked forensic evidence linking Owens to the killing. The state’s case was based only on the testimony of co-defendant and friend of Owens, Steven Golden, who was accused of robbery and murder, because there was insufficient evidence. As their joint trial got underway, Golden entered a guilty plea to murder with a weapon.

Golden entered a guilty plea to charges of murder, armed robbery, and criminal conspiracy and consented to testify against Owens when their combined trial got underway. At the time, Golden, who was eighteen, informed the court that Owens had shot Graves. Just two days before the planned execution, though, things took a different turn this week. Golden signed a shocking affidavit on Wednesday rescinding his testimony. Owens “is not the person who shot Irene Graves,” he claimed, and “was not present” when the heist was carried out. In his statement, Golden claimed that he was under duress to write a statement accusing Owens and that he was intoxicated when he was questioned by police a few days after the heist.

The jury was not informed of this condition at that time, though. “In the updated affidavit, he stated that he does not want Owen to be put to death for a crime he did not commit.” “I want to have a clear conscience because this has been weighing heavily on my mind.” The state attorney general sent a response on Thursday, a short time after the affidavit became viral online, arguing that Golden’s updated testimony lacked credibility and did not call for a new trial. Owens admitted the shooting to his mother and girlfriend, according to the state’s attorneys, and there was evidence to support their claims.

The “jilted former girlfriend’s” accusations were, however, dismissed by the death row inmate’s attorneys, who asserted that the mother had “disavowed” a statement that police had her sign implying her son had confessed. Ultimately, the state supreme court ruled in favor of the attorney general, finding that further evidence confirmed Owens’s guilt and that the latest revelation did not present “exceptional circumstances” warranting a reversal of the decision.

The justices have also brought up Allah’s alleged confession to killing a man in jail in 1999, a matter that was brought up at the time of his initial punishment but was later withdrawn. Owens’s desperate plea was turned down by the US Supreme Court, which put the ultimate nail in the coffin. Sonia Sotomayor, a liberal justice, did, however, say she was in favor of temporarily stopping the execution. The recent execution now raises worries about the US’s rapid pivot towards handing capital punishment to convicts.