COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina is set to move forward with the execution of an inmate as a backlog of cases comes to a head, marking the third execution since September. The situation arises from a number of inmates who have exhausted their appeals during a time when the state struggled to acquire lethal injection drugs.
Marion Bowman Jr. is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. on Friday at a prison in Columbia. Now 44 years old, Bowman was found guilty of murder following the shooting of his friend, whose charred remains were uncovered in the trunk of a vehicle. He has consistently claimed his innocence, with his legal team arguing that he was convicted largely based on testimonies from friends and relatives who were rewarded with deals or had charges dismissed in exchange for their cooperation.
Bowman has spent more than half of his life on death row. Although he was offered a plea deal for a life sentence, he chose to go to trial because he maintained his innocence. The upcoming execution will take place after the state ended a 13-year hiatus in executions, which was partly due to difficulties in sourcing the necessary lethal injection drugs. Recent legislative actions allowed for a shield law, enabling prison officials to contract with a compounding pharmacy that would provide pentobarbital, on the condition that its identity remained confidential.
Bowman is not seeking clemency from Gov. Henry McMaster. His attorney, Lindsey Vann, explained that Bowman did not wish to languish in prison for decades concerning a crime he did not commit. “After more than two decades of battling a broken system that has failed him at every turn, Marion’s decision is a powerful refusal to legitimize an unjust process that has already stolen so much of his life,” Vann stated in a release on Thursday.
Historically, no governor in South Carolina has granted clemency in any of the 45 executions carried out since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. Bowman’s conviction took place in Dorchester County in 2002 for the murder of 21-year-old Kandee Martin in 2001. Several acquaintances and family members testified against him as part of plea agreements with prosecutors.
Eyewitness accounts included claims that Bowman felt angered because Martin owed him money and that he suspected she was wearing a wire to incriminate him. Although Bowman acknowledged selling drugs to Martin, he firmly denied any involvement in her death. Notably, Bowman is Black, and he shares this demographic with the two other inmates who have been executed since the moratorium was lifted. His legal team contended that his trial counsel may have exhibited undue sympathy toward his white victim, but the South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed this argument as lacking merit.
Another issue brought forth by Bowman’s lawyers pertains to his weight. An anesthesiologist has raised concerns that the state’s lethal injection protocols do not adequately consider Bowman’s recorded weight of 389 pounds (176 kilograms), which may complicate the process of establishing an IV and determining the drug dosage in individuals with obesity.
In the prior execution, two doses of pentobarbital were administered 11 minutes apart, according to autopsy records. Before the long gap in executions, South Carolina ranked among the most active states in carrying out capital punishment. The newly enacted shield law permitted the drug supplier’s identity to remain confidential, aiding prison officials in sourcing the drug necessary for executions.
The South Carolina Supreme Court approved the resumption of executions in July, leading to the execution of Freddie Owens by lethal injection on September 20 and Richard Moore on November 1. The court has scheduled subsequent executions to occur every five weeks until the remaining three inmates, who have exhausted all appeals, are also put to death.
Since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in 1976, South Carolina has executed 45 inmates. In the early 2000s, it typically conducted around three executions each year, with nine states surpassing this number. However, the number of inmates currently on death row has decreased significantly; from 63 condemned individuals in early 2011, it now stands at approximately 30. Many inmates have successfully appealed for different sentences, while others have passed away from natural causes.
