Civil rights leaders are asking Gov. Henry McMaster to grant clemency to Freddie Owens, a Greenville man scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 20.
On Sept. 12, South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty and state chapters from the ACLU, NAACP and Democrats for Life of America called on the governor to reduce his sentence to life without parole at the statehouse.
“No one should take a life. Not even the State of South Carolina. Only God can do that,” Rev. David Kennedy of the Laurens County NAACP and New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church said in a statement. “There has to be another way to hold people accountable. The death penalty is traumatizing.”
Owens, who legally changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, will be executed in Columbia.
South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty’s also published a petition with more than 3,500 signatures so far. The petition urges signers to call the governor to stop the execution. “Any alternative is better than the death penalty” the petition reads.