South Carolina Executes Death Sentence After 13 Years

A man convicted of a 1997 murder has been executed by lethal injection in South Carolina, the state’s first death row inmate to be executed in 13 years. U.S. media reported that Freddie Owens, 46, was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m. local time after being given a lethal injection. South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster rejected Owens’ appeal for clemency, and the Supreme Court denied a stay of execution.

Owens was convicted in 1999 of killing convenience store clerk Irene Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three, during a robbery in Greenville on Halloween night 1997. Surveillance footage played at his trial showed two men wearing masks entering the store around 4 a.m.

Just hours before inmate Freddie Owens is set to die by lethal injection in South Carolina, the friend whose testimony helped send Owens to prison is saying he lied to save himself from the death chamber.

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— CBS News (@CBSNews)
September 19, 2024

The robbers stole $37 from the cash register and led Graves to the back of the store, where she was shot in the head after failing to open a safe. At trial, co-defendant Steven Golden testified that Owens was the gunman wearing a ski mask who shot Graves. Golden, who received a lesser sentence, has since recanted his testimony.