South Carolina Prepares to Execute First Prisoner in More Than 13 Years

Electric Chair and Firing Squad Ready

The Corrections Director of South Carolina, Bryan Stirling, has verified that their electric chair has been tested and is ready for use. In a similar update, he also communicated that the firing squad is equipped with the necessary ammunition and has been trained for implementing the execution scheduled for next month. If carried out, this execution would be South Carolina’s first in more than 13 years.

Legal Controversy Around Execution Methods

This planned execution has stirred significant legal controversy. While the State Supreme Court has directed Stirling to submit a certified statement asserting the availability of three execution methods, the lawyers of the condemned prisoner, Freddie Owens, have expressed reservations. They have also expressed intent to contest the statement’s adequacy, either at the State Supreme Court or before federal judges.

Capital Punishment: A Wider Debate

As Owens is set to become the first condemned prisoner to be put to death in South Carolina since 2011, his scheduled execution has also instigated a broader debate on capital punishment within the state as well as across the United States. In 2021, South Carolina reintroduced the use of the electric chair, and the firing squad was added as an execution option as part of the same legislation. The rationale behind the move was to counter interruptions in death penalty proceedings due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs both within the state and elsewhere.

Contested Methods of Execution

The reintroduction of these archaic methods has its critics. While electrocution, one of the oldest execution techniques, has been deemed antiquated and fraught with uncertainties, death by firing squad is under contest as a novel concept. The attorneys arguing on behalf of the death-row inmates of South Carolina have petitioned the state Supreme Court to declare both methods as cruel and unusual punishment.

Owens decides on his Fate

Condemned inmate Freddie Owens will need to decide by September 6 how he wishes to be put to death. He has signed the decision-making power over to his attorney, Emily Paavola. However, this move is also awaiting approval from the Supreme Court as the prison system seeks to verify the legality of such an action under South Carolina law.

Awaiting Execution

Owens, who is 46 years old, received the death sentence for committing a murder in 1997. He was convicted of fatally shooting a convenience store clerk, Irene Graves, during a series of robberies. Notably, Owens also stands accused of a second murder–that of his cellmate at the county jail. However, the charge was dropped in 2019 with certain conditions attached.

Possibility of Clemency?

The final hope for Owens remains the gubernatorial power to grant clemency. In South Carolina, the governor has the exclusive power to reduce a death sentence to life imprisonment. However, no such action has been taken in the last 43 executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Current Governor, Henry McMaster, has yet to announce his decision on Owens’s case.