South Carolina is starting to schedule executions again after the holiday period, with the state Supreme Court setting the next execution date for January 31st.
The state is considering carrying out the death penalty for several inmates whose executions were delayed because prison officials were unable to obtain lethal injection drugs, although they have not been appealed.
Marion Bowman Jr., 44, who was convicted of murder in the shooting death of her friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of his car in Dorchester County in 2001, will be sentenced to death at the end of January. is.
Bowman's attorney announced Friday that he is pleading not guilty. His lawyers also argue that it would be “unconscionable” to put him to death because of unresolved questions about his conviction.
South Carolina inmate dies by lethal injection, ending the state's 13-year moratorium on executions
Marion Bowman Jr., 44, is scheduled to be executed on January 31st. (South Carolina Department of Corrections, via Associated Press)
He is the third inmate executed since September after the state obtained lethal injection drugs. The first two, Freddie Owens, who was executed on September 20th, and Richard Moore, who was executed on November 1st, chose to die by lethal injection; You can also choose to be shot.
Three more inmates are awaiting their execution dates. The state Supreme Court has ruled that executions can be carried out five weeks apart.
The court could have set Bowman's execution date as early as December 6, but lawyers for the four inmates awaiting execution have asked that the execution be postponed until January. The request was accepted without comment.
“Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a tremendous toll on everyone involved, especially at such a critical time of the year for the family,” the lawyers said in court documents.
Lawyers representing the state said prison officials were willing to stick with the original schedule and that the state had carried out executions around Christmas and New Year's in the past, including on December 4, 1998. There were five executions between January 8, 1999 and January 8, 1999.
South Carolina, once one of the states with the highest number of executions, is cutting back on lethal injection drugs whose supplies have expired due to concerns from pharmaceutical companies that they would have to disclose when an execution has ended. Executions were suspended for 13 years until they resumed this fall due to difficulties in obtaining them. sold drugs to state officials; But two years ago, the state Legislature passed a shield law that allows authorities to keep their suppliers of lethal injection drugs private.
In July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for executions to resume.
Death row inmates can seek clemency from Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, but no governor in the modern death penalty system has ever commuted a death sentence to life in prison without parole.
This photo shows the state's death chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, and includes the electric chair on the right and the firing squad chair on the left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections, via Associated Press)
South Carolina's prison warden has until next week to ensure that lethal injection, the electric chair and the newly added firing squad are all options available to Bowman.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last time an inmate was executed by firing squad in the United States was in Utah in 2010.
Bowman was convicted of killing Candy Martin, 21, in 2001. Several friends and family members testified against Bowman as part of his plea deal with prosecutors.
One friend testified that Bowman was upset because Martin owed him money, while another friend testified that Bowman believed Martin was wearing a recording device to have him arrested.
Bowman's lawyers ask the state Supreme Court to grant a final appeal hearing, arguing trial lawyers were unprepared and too sympathetic to white victims instead of black clients. requested that the execution be postponed.
His current lawyer said Friday that he did not receive a fair trial and lacks effective legal representation.
Lindsey S. Vann, executive director of the inmate advocacy group Justice 360, said Bowman's trial attorney pressured him to plead guilty and was “not a strategic legal advisor, but a personal advocate. and made other inappropriate decisions based on speciesist views.”
South Carolina executes Richard Moore despite widely supported petition for life sentence
The room where prisoners are executed in Columbus, South Carolina. (South Carolina Department of Corrections, via Associated Press)
“His conviction was based on unreliable and motivated testimony from biased witnesses who received reduced or reduced sentences in exchange for their cooperation,” a statement on behalf of Bowman's legal team said. Vann, who published the book, wrote:
South Carolina has executed 45 inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976. In the early 2000s, the state averaged three executions a year. Only nine states have killed more inmates.
Since the moratorium on involuntary executions began in 2011, the state's death row population has decreased significantly.
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The state had 63 death row inmates in early 2011, but there are currently 30. About 20 inmates have been removed from death row and received different sentences after successful appeals, while others have died of natural causes.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
