A South Carolina inmate, Freddie Eugene Owens, is scheduled for execution this Friday, and he has made a last-minute plea for clemency to Governor Henry McMaster—a request no governor in the state has granted since the death penalty was reinstated almost 50 years ago.
Owens, now 46, is set to become the first person executed in South Carolina in 13 years. His lawyer opted for lethal injection, foregoing the firing squad and electric chair, after Owens left the decision in her hands.
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Governor McMaster has stated he will maintain the tradition of announcing his decision by phone to the prison just moments before Owens’ execution is set to begin.
Owens was sentenced to death for the 1997 murder of Irene Graves, a convenience store clerk in Greenville. According to authorities, Owens shot Graves after she failed to open the store’s safe. While awaiting sentencing, Owens also killed a fellow inmate in a violent attack. Although Owens confessed to the inmate’s murder, he was never formally tried for that crime, though the confession was read to juries that later sentenced him to death.
Owens’ clemency petition argues that prosecutors did not present scientific evidence proving he pulled the trigger in Graves’ killing. His lawyers claim that a co-defendant, who was in the store during the incident, made a secret deal with prosecutors in exchange for testifying that Owens was the shooter.
His attorneys also argue that Owens was only 19 at the time of the crime and had suffered from brain damage due to physical and sexual abuse during his time in juvenile detention. “Because Khalil’s youth and traumas prevented him from functioning as an adult, it is unjust to punish him as one,” said his legal team, referencing Owens’ decision to change his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while in prison.
Although Owens’ full clemency petition has not been made public, these arguments echo those made earlier when his defense team sought to delay the execution. However, the South Carolina Supreme Court denied that request, ruling that either the arguments had been addressed before or were insufficient to halt the execution after decades of legal appeals.
Owens has been sentenced to death three times, with earlier rulings overturned and retrials ordered in his case. During his most recent sentencing, prosecutors linked a ski mask worn by the shooter to Owens, solidifying their case that he was responsible for Graves’ death.
Overshadowing the case is Owens’ brutal killing of fellow inmate Christopher Lee before he was sentenced for Graves’ murder. Owens confessed in detail to the killing, describing how he stabbed, burned, and stomped on Lee, claiming he acted out of frustration at being wrongfully convicted. The confession was read at every sentencing phase but Owens was never tried for Lee’s murder. Prosecutors dropped the charges after he exhausted his appeals in the Graves case but reserved the right to reinstate them if needed.
In South Carolina, the governor alone has the authority to grant clemency, reducing a death sentence to life in prison. No governor has exercised this power in any of the state’s 43 executions since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
Governor McMaster has said he will thoroughly review all materials related to Owens’ case but remains undecided. As a former prosecutor, he expressed deference to jury verdicts and court rulings, stating, “When the rule of law has been followed, there really is only one answer.”
At least five other death row inmates in South Carolina are out of appeals, and the state Supreme Court has approved their executions in five-week intervals.
