Dismissing Codefendant’s Last-Minute Admission that Khalil Allah Was Not Present at the Crime Scene, South Carolina Supreme Court Clears Way for Today’s Execution

On September 19, 2024, attor­neys for Khalil Allah, for­mer­ly known as Freddie Eugene Owens, filed an emer­gency motion for a stay of exe­cu­tion after receiv­ing a signed affi­davit from his code­fen­dant in the 1997 shoot­ing death of Irene Graves that Mr. Allah ​“was not present” dur­ing the crime. Just two days ahead of Mr. Allah’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion, Steven Golden, who was also charged in Ms. Graves’ death, recant­ed his tri­al tes­ti­mo­ny and said that Mr. Allah ​“is not the per­son who shot Irene Graves” and he ​“was not present” dur­ing the rob­bery. In the affi­davit, Mr. Golden added that dur­ing police ques­tion­ing, he was under the influ­ence of drugs and was pres­sured into writ­ing a state­ment impli­cat­ing Mr. Allah. ​“I sub­sti­tut­ed [Mr. Allah] for the per­son who was real­ly with me,” Mr. Golden wrote, adding that if he iden­ti­fies the ​“real shoot­er,” he fears ​“his asso­ciates might kill” him. Mr. Golden was also giv­en a plea deal that ensured he would not face the death penal­ty if he tes­ti­fied against Mr. Allah, which was undis­closed to the defense team. Despite the admis­sion that Mr. Golden lied about Mr. Allah’s involve­ment at his tri­al, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled the same day that Mr. Allah’s exe­cu­tion, sched­uled for September 20, 2024, will proceed.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson said that Mr. Golden’s affi­davit is not cred­i­ble and does not war­rant a new tri­al for Mr. Allah. He added that there is addi­tion­al evi­dence point­ing towards Mr. Allah’s guilt, alleg­ing that he con­fessed to shoot­ing his moth­er and girl­friend. However, attor­neys for Mr. Allah argue that his moth­er ​“dis­avowed” a state­ment she signed for police sug­gest­ing Mr. Allah had con­fessed. In the emer­gency motion, Mr. Allah’s attor­neys wrote that ​“this court has the pow­er and the respon­si­bil­i­ty to ensure that the state of South Carolina does not kill one of its cit­i­zens for a crime he did not com­mit.” The state supreme court jus­tices agreed with the attor­ney general’s office, and stat­ed that Mr. Golden’s state­ment is ​“square­ly incon­sis­tent” with his past tes­ti­mo­ny, and that there is ​“no indi­ca­tion of the cir­cum­stances under which [Mr.] Golden was asked to sign his most recent affidavit.”

Mr. Allah’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion would be the first exe­cu­tion con­duct­ed in South Carolina in 13 years. Mr. Allah was giv­en the oppor­tu­ni­ty to elect between lethal injec­tion, elec­tro­cu­tion, or fir­ing squad but he declined to choose, cit­ing his Muslim faith. His attor­ney was giv­en the author­i­ty to choose the exe­cu­tion method and chose lethal injec­tion. Mr. Allah, who was 19 at the time of the crime, has long main­tained his inno­cence. At tri­al, the pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed no foren­sic evi­dence con­nect­ing him to the shoot­ing. Surveillance footage showed two masked men with guns in the con­ve­nience store, but they could not be iden­ti­fied. The state’s case large­ly relied on the tes­ti­mo­ny of Mr. Golden, who now admits he lied. ​“I don’t want [Mr. Allah] to be exe­cut­ed for some­thing he didn’t do,” Mr. Golden wrote in the affi­davit, adding that ​“this has weighed heav­i­ly on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience.”

Mr. Allah has also asked Governor Henry McMaster to grant him clemen­cy. No South Carolina gov­er­nor has ever grant­ed a death row pris­on­er clemen­cy in the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, and Gov. McMaster has indi­cat­ed he will announce his deci­sion just min­utes ahead of Mr. Allah’s sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Among oth­er issues, Mr. Allah’s clemen­cy peti­tion notes that he was just 19 at the time of the killing, and sus­tained brain dam­age from phys­i­cal and sex­u­al vio­lence while in a juve­nile prison. ​“Because Khalil’s youth and trau­mas pre­vent­ed him from func­tion­ing as an adult, it is unjust to pun­ish him as one,” his attor­neys wrote. Reverend Hillary Taylor, the Executive Director of South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that the issues in Mr. Allah’s case are evi­dence that ​“the death penal­ty is not giv­en to the ​‘worst of the worst,’ it is giv­en to the peo­ple who are least able to rep­re­sent them­selves in court. That is extreme­ly unjust.” Rev. Taylor added that ​“Khalil should not have to die for some­body else’s wrong­do­ing. That is not accountability.”

Ensley Graves-Lee, Irene Graves’ daugh­ter, in an inter­view, said that recent devel­op­ments in the case have tak­en a toll on her fam­i­ly. ​“I under­stand that it is prob­a­bly dif­fi­cult for the oth­er side, and I’m sure they would do any­thing to save some­one they love,” said Ms. Graves-Lee. ​“I have to remind myself that I had no choice in any mat­ter. I was 10 when she died and 12 when the ver­dict came…I had no choice in the death penal­ty at all.” She told reporters that she feels as though she is ​“prepar­ing for a funeral…I don’t know if there’s clo­sure after it, but I’m just try­ing to get past this part that was already decid­ed for me.”

Five oth­er death row pris­on­ers in South Carolina have exhaust­ed their appeals, and the state Supreme Court has autho­rized exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out in five-week inter­vals. South Carolina has sched­uled an exe­cu­tion date for Marion Bowman on November 29, 2024.