Media witnesses look at the lethal injection table in the execution chamber at the Utah State Correctional Facility after the Taberon Honie execution Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, Pool)
COLUMBIA — The state Supreme Court refused Thursday to halt Freddie Owens’ execution over new claims by his convicted accomplice that he played no role in the fatal shooting that sent him to death row.
Justices’ denial means Owens’ execution is still set for 6 p.m. Friday. He stands to be the first person executed in South Carolina in 13 years.
The only thing that could halt his execution is an unlikely reprieve from Gov. Henry McMaster.
Owens, who changed his legal name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah in 2015, was sentenced to death in 1999 for killing a gas station clerk in Greenville during a robbery, though he and his attorneys maintain he is innocent.
His death by lethal injection would be the first execution since the state Supreme Court ruled electrocution and firing squad are constitutional , clearing the way for death warrants to resume.