South Carolina Court Rejects Death Row Inmate’s Innocence Claim, Refuses to Halt Execution

Owens was convicted in 1999 of the murder of Irene Graves during a robbery of a Speedway convenience store in 1997.

He filed motions to stay the execution on Aug. 30 and Sept. 5, but the court denied the motions in a Sept. 12 order.

Owens then submitted an "Emergency Motion to Reconsider Denial of Stay of Execution," which the court rejected this week.

The execution, scheduled for Sept. 20, had been held up due to challenges in obtaining lethal injection drugs, as pharmaceutical companies refused to sell them if they could be publicly identified.

In response to these difficulties, the state introduced a firing squad option and passed a shield law to keep details of executions private. This led the state Supreme Court to clear the way for executions to resume earlier this summer.

In the most recent motion, Owens presented a new affidavit from Steven Golden, a co-defendant who had testified against him.

Golden's Sept. 18 affidavit contained several assertions, including a claim that Owens was not present at the store when the woman was murdered.

"I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was not there," Golden wrote in his statement. "I'm coming forward now because I know Freddie's execution date is September 20 and I don't want Freddie to be executed for something he didn't do. This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience."

Owens's attorneys expressed disappointment with the court's decision.

"South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit," attorney Gerald King said in a statement. "We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens."

Owens's legal team has also said that he was 19 at the time of the killing and had suffered brain damage due to abuse endured while in juvenile prison.

"Because Khalil's youth and traumas prevented him from functioning as an adult, it is unjust to punish him as one," his lawyers said.

The state high court ruled that Golden's latest testimony was inconsistent with his previous statements made during Owens's 1999 trial, his 2003 resentencing trial, and his initial account to law enforcement in 1997.

They added that in their belief and according to other precedents "recanted testimony ... is among the least reliable evidence."

The justices also pointed to evidence from Owens's five separate confessions to individuals ranging from his girlfriend to law enforcement officers. This, coupled with testimony from Owens's friends that he had bragged about killing the clerk, supported the prosecution's case.

Owens's last chance to avoid execution is if Gov. Henry McMaster commutes his sentence. The governor has said that he will adhere to the historic practice of announcing his decision during a phone call with the prison just minutes before Owens's execution is set to begin.

Owens was also implicated in another killing. After his conviction for the Graves murder but before sentencing, Owens allegedly fatally attacked fellow jail inmate Christopher Lee, according to court records.

Owens allegedly confessed to the attack, providing details of how he stabbed Lee, burned his eyes, and stomped on him.

He justified his actions by stating he had been "wrongly convicted of murder," according to an investigator's account.

Owens was charged with Lee's murder but he was never tried. Prosecutors dropped the charges in 2019, retaining the right to restore them around the time Owens exhausted his regular appeals.

Despite these complications, Owens's attorneys have continued to challenge the fairness of his conviction in the Graves murder.

They argue that prosecutors never presented scientific evidence proving Owens pulled the trigger. Prosecutors have stood by the testimony of others who claim Owens bragged about the crime.

South Carolinians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty are planning to hold a vigil outside the prison in the hours before Owens is scheduled to be executed.

Owens, who changed his name to Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah while in prison, continues to be referred to as Owens in court and prison records.

Since the U.S. reinstated the death penalty in 1976, South Carolina has executed 43 inmates.