Freddie Eugene Owens: South Carolina is on the verge of its first execution in 13 years after lethal injection drugs were seized

CNN
—

Freddie Owens, a South Carolina death row inmate, died by lethal injection on Friday. It was the first execution in the state in 13 years.

Owens, 46, was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing supermarket clerk Irene Graves during a robbery in Greenville, South Carolina, when he was 19 years old.

Owens was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. ET, state officials said at a news conference Friday evening. He did not provide a final statement.

The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay his execution, and Governor Henry McMaster decided not to grant Owens the pardon he sought.

According to court documents, Owen's lawyers had asked the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution on Friday, hours before his execution, but the court denied the request.

The inmate sought a temporary restraining order in part because his attorneys said there was a violation of due process when the South Carolina Department of Corrections and Governor McMaster Owens failed to provide basic information about the drugs used in the lethal injection and the qualifications of the execution team, the emergency motion said.

The state-ordered execution is the first by lethal injection in the state since it regained access to the drugs needed to perform the lethal injection procedure after nearly a decade of supply problems.

Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three, was working the night shift at a Greenville store on Nov. 1, 1997, when she was shot during a robbery, CNN affiliate WHNS reported.

Owens was sentenced to death two years later after being found guilty of murder, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy, the Department of Corrections said.

Owens also confessed to killing a cellmate in 1999 while awaiting sentencing after his conviction, WHNS reported.

His execution began at 6:35 p.m. ET, officials said. Two of Graves' family members in attendance appeared to be watching intently as Owens, who wore a green jumpsuit and was covered with a white sheet, according to an Associated Press reporter who witnessed the lethal injection.

“I didn't take my eyes off him until halfway through the trial,” AP reporter Jeffrey Collins said at the press conference on Friday.

“There was no hostility or anger or anything like that, they just stared at him quite intensely.”

On Thursday night, the South Carolina State Supreme Court refused to stay Owens' execution for the second time this month, despite a new affidavit signed Wednesday by his co-defendant Steven Golden, who now claims, court records show, that Owens was not present at the time of the robbery and killing.

Owens filed separate motions on Aug. 30 and Sept. 5 asking the court to stop Friday's execution. The court said it denied both motions on Sept. 12 and saw no reason to reconsider its decision Thursday.

Golden's affidavit also stated that he himself was not the shooter, but “swears that he knows the identity of the person,” according to a court order.

“This new affidavit is in complete contradiction to Golden's testimony at the trial against Owens in 1999, the first resentencing in 2003, and the statement he made to police officers immediately after he was involved in the commission of the crimes in 1997,” the order states.

The court also found that Owens had previously confessed to five people, including two police officers and his girlfriend.

The South Carolina Supreme Court issued an execution warrant for Owens to the state Department of Corrections on August 23.

According to the Department of Corrections, Owens was given the choice between lethal injection, the electric chair or the firing squad two weeks ago, but court documents say he instead delegated the decision-making authority to his attorney, Emily Paavola.

According to the documents, Paavola opted for lethal injection for her client.

CNN has contacted Owens' lawyers for comment.

Owens' execution was scheduled for June 25, 2021, but the process was paused later that month after the state Supreme Court blocked the executions of Owens and another death row inmate, Brad Sigmon, CNN previously reported.

The court ordered a stay of their executions while proceedings were completed for what was then the state's newest method of capital punishment – death by firing squad.

In May 2021, a law went into effect in South Carolina allowing inmates to choose between execution by electric chair or firing squad if drugs for lethal injection are not available, according to the state legislature.

Because there were problems with the state's supply of lethal injection at the time and the method of firing squad had not yet been established, death by electricity was the only method of execution, the AP reported. Owens' and Sigmon's lawyers argued that the state's 109-year-old method of electrocution was cruel and unusual, the AP reported.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the U.S. Supreme Court's response to Owens' request for a stay of execution. The court had not yet made a decision as of late Friday afternoon.

CNN's Jamiel Lynch and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.