South Carolina Supreme Court Sets First Execution Date in More Than 13 Years

On August 23, 2024, the South Carolina Department of Corrections announced that the state supreme court has set a September 20, 2024, exe­cu­tion date for Freddie Owens, which would be the first exe­cu­tion in South Carolina since 2011. Mr. Owens was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the killing of a con­ve­nience store clerk in Greenville, South Carolina and he was lat­er con­vict­ed in the mur­der of a cell­mate. In a July 31^st rul­ing, the South Carolina Supreme Court decid­ed that the state’s three exe­cu­tion meth­ods — lethal injec­tion, fir­ing squad, and elec­tro­cu­tion — were valid meth­ods of exe­cu­tion that are not con­sid­ered ​“cru­el, cor­po­ral, or unusu­al pun­ish­ment.” Consequently, Mr. Owens will be forced to choose which method will be used for his execution.

The direc­tor of SCDOC will have five days to deter­mine that all three meth­ods of exe­cu­tion are avail­able and must pro­vide Mr. Owens’ attor­neys with proof that the lethal injec­tion drugs in SCDOC’s pos­ses­sion are sta­ble and mixed prop­er­ly. This is a require­ment that comes from the state supreme court’s inter­pre­ta­tion of a secre­cy law passed in 2023. Mr. Owens will then have just a week to choose a method of exe­cu­tion. If he does not decide, he will be exe­cut­ed by the elec­tric chair. John Blume, an attor­ney for Mr. Owens, told theAssociated Press that the defense team is wait­ing for prison offi­cials to sub­mit sworn state­ments about the puri­ty and poten­cy of the lethal injec­tion drugs in their pos­ses­sion. Mr. Blume said that ​“the lack of trans­paren­cy about the source of the exe­cu­tion drugs, how they were obtained and whether (they) can bring about as pain­less a death as pos­si­ble is still of grave con­cern to the lawyers that rep­re­sent per­sons on death row.”

In ear­ly 2023, South Carolina passed leg­is­la­tion shield­ing the iden­ti­ties of drug man­u­fac­tur­ers and exe­cu­tion team mem­bers from the gen­er­al pub­lic. In September 2023, Governor Henry McMaster announced that the state had pro­cured pen­to­bar­bi­tal and were ​“now pre­pared” to car­ry out lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions. According SCDOC offi­cials, the depart­ment made more than 1,300 con­tacts in efforts to secure these drugs. In pre­vi­ous lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions, South Carolina used a three-drug pro­to­col, but with the acqui­si­tion of pen­to­bar­bi­tal, will now have a one-drug pro­to­col. South Carolina, like many oth­er states, had been unable to pur­chase the drugs need­ed to car­ry out lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tions since their sup­ply expired in 2013. In efforts to bring back cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, in 2021, the state leg­is­la­ture passed leg­is­la­tion that autho­rized the fir­ing squad as a method of execution.

Mr. Owens also has the oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask Governor McMaster for clemen­cy and a com­mu­ta­tion of his sen­tence to life impris­on­ment with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole. Since 1976, no South Carolina gov­er­nors have grant­ed clemen­cy to indi­vid­u­als facing execution.