South Carolina: Freddie Owens executed – despite exoneration by his accomplice

On Friday evening, 46-year-old Freddie Eugene Owens was executed with a lethal injection, an overdose of pentobarbital, in the US state of South Carolina. It was the first execution in South Carolina for 13 years.

Owens had the choice of lethal injection, firing squad or electric chair. For religious reasons – he was Muslim and called himself Khalil Allah – he had left the decision to his lawyer.

Owens was sentenced to death for allegedly shooting a 41-year-old clerk, a single mother of three, during a grocery store robbery on Halloween night in 1997 at the age of 19.

Two days before his execution, his accomplice Steven Golden had an affidavit published in which he corrected Owens’ incriminating statement in order to clear his conscience.

Owens had not shot; he had not even been present during the robbery. The police had urged him to make the statement and offered him a deal so that he was spared the death sentence. His accomplice, however, was someone else; he feared being killed by his ally.

Neither the South Carolina Supreme Court, nor its governor, nor the Supreme Court of the United States were interested in the new evidence. The accomplice’s testimony was not credible, they ruled – but it was sufficient to convict him around a quarter of a century ago.

Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/20/us/freddie-owens-south-carolina-execution/index.html
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/dismissing-codefendants-last-minute-admission-that-khalil-allah-was-not-present-at-the-crime-scene-south-carolina-supreme-court-clears-way-for-todays-execution