South Carolina has executed its first loss of life row inmate in 13 years, administering a deadly injection to Freddie Owens.
Owens, 46, was discovered responsible by a jury of killing store employee Irene Graves throughout an armed theft in Greenville in 1997.
He was executed regardless of his co-defendant signing a sworn assertion this week claiming Owens was not current on the time of the theft and killing.
The South Carolina Supreme Courtroom refused to halt Owens’ execution, saying the claims have been inconsistent with testimony made at his trial.
Owens was executed on the Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, South Carolina, on Friday night.
He was pronounced useless at 18:55 native time (22:55 GMT) after being injected with a drug referred to as pentobarbital. He made no last assertion.
His loss of life adopted a pause in executions within the state as a result of jail officers have been unable to obtain the drug required for deadly injections.
Owens was sentenced to loss of life in 1999, two years after killing Graves, after being convicted of homicide, armed theft and prison conspiracy.
The day after he was discovered responsible, he killed his cellmate in jail, experiences CNN affiliate WHNS.
Based on reporting on his trial by South Carolina newspaper The State, Owens was 19 when he and Steve Golden, then 18, held Graves at gunpoint whereas trying to rob the comfort retailer the place she labored.
Owens shot and killed Graves after she did not open a protected under the counter, in accordance with testimony supplied by Golden at Owens’s trial.
On the time of her loss of life, Graves was a 41-year-old single mom of three.
Legal professionals for Owens tried to halt his execution a number of occasions, together with twice in September. However the court docket denied every request.
Within the newest try, legal professionals pointed to an affidavit signed by Golden on Wednesday, which claimed Owens was harmless.
The court docket denied the request to halt the execution by saying that the brand new affidavit was “squarely inconsistent with Golden’s testimony at Owens’s 1999 trial” and the assertion he gave to police proper after their arrest.
Different witnesses testified that Owens had instructed them he shot Graves, prosecutors mentioned.
Advocates in opposition to the loss of life penalty and Owens’s mom additionally appealed to the state for clemency, which was denied by Governor Henry McMaster.
Hours earlier than his execution, Owens’s mom mentioned in an announcement it was a “grave injustice that has been perpetrated in opposition to my son”.
“Freddie has maintained his innocence since day one,” his mom, Dora Mason, mentioned, in accordance with native information outlet the Greenville Information.
Inmates in South Carolina are allowed to decide on whether or not they wish to die by deadly injection, electrical chair or firing squad.
Owens deferred the choice to his lawyer, who selected the deadly injection possibility for him, in accordance with the Greenville Information.
Journalists who witnessed the execution mentioned members of Graves’ household have been additionally current.
