Just a few days prior to the scheduled execution of inmate Freddie Owens by lethal injection in South Carolina, a friend who had provided testimony that led to Owens’ imprisonment is now admitting to lying to save himself from the death penalty. Owens is facing death at 6 p.m. on Friday at a Columbia prison for the murder of a Greenville convenience store clerk back in 1997.
In an attempt to halt South Carolina’s first execution in over ten years, Owens’ attorneys submitted a sworn statement from his co-defendant Steven Golden. Golden’s statement indicated that Owens was not present at the store during the robbery and killing of Irene Graves. Previously, Golden had testified against Owens, alleging a secret deal with prosecutors that was unknown to the jury during the trial.
Golden mentioned in his latest statement that due to being high on cocaine and facing police pressure implicating Owens, he falsely accused Owens out of fear for his life from the real killer or the killer’s associates. Despite facing the death penalty or life in prison, Golden stated that prosecutors had promised to consider his testimony in his favor, leading to a 28-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter.
The prosecutors highlighted other witnesses’ testimonies linking Owens to the crime, with friends stating Owens had planned the robbery and confessed to killing Graves. However, the timing of Golden’s change of testimony just prior to Owens’ execution date has raised suspicions.
Meanwhile, a group called South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty presented a petition signed by over 10,000 individuals to Gov. Henry McMaster’s office, urging him to commute Owens’ sentence to life in prison. The group emphasized the belief that justice involves restoration and that essentially, one cannot restore someone who has been executed. Governor McMaster, a Republican, has indicated he will wait until minutes before the execution to decide on clemency.
Owens would be the first person put to death in South Carolina in 13 years, as the state previously encountered difficulties in obtaining lethal injection drugs due to companies’ reluctance to supply them publicly. South Carolina has since introduced a firing squad as an alternative and enacted a law to maintain execution details private. As the state Supreme Court has paved the way for the resumption of executions, five other inmates without appeals could potentially have their executions scheduled every five weeks.
