South Carolina is set to execute its first inmate in 13 years after an unintended pause because the state could not obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is scheduled to die just after 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison. He was convicted of the 1997 killing of a clerk who could not get the safe open at a convenience store in Greenville.
Owens' last-ditch appeals have been denied . His last chance to avoid death is for Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to commute his sentence to life in prison.
McMaster said he will follow historical tradition and announce his decision minutes before the lethal injection begins when prison officials call him and the state attorney general to make sure there is no reason to delay the execution. The former prosecutor promised to review Owens' clemency petition but has said he tends to trust prosecutors and juries.
Owens may be the first of several inmates to die in the state's death chamber at Broad River Correctional Institution. Five other inmates are out of appeals and the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way to hold an execution every five weeks.
