Rev. David Kennedy, head of the Laurens County NAACP and New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church, speaks during a news conference Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — The state Supreme Court will not halt the state’s first execution in 13 years over an inmate’s claims of new evidence and legal errors, the court said in a Thursday order .
Freddie Owens, who changed his legal name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, is scheduled to die Sept. 20 by lethal injection . Unless his attorneys file another motion to halt his execution that convinces the high court, the only way to prevent his execution would be for the governor to grant him clemency.
Gov. Henry McMaster has declined to say whether he will give Owens clemency, saying he will announce his decision minutes before Owens is scheduled to die. Civil rights groups are circulating a petition asking McMaster to give Owens a lighter sentence.
