A South Carolina death row inmate convicted of murdering a single mother of three is set to be executed — the state’s first in more than a decade and the nation’s 14th this year — but a key witness who testified against him is now arguing his innocence.
Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Friday. Owens was convicted of murdering Eileen Graves, 41, who was shot in the head at a convenience store during a robbery on Halloween night in 1997.
On Wednesday, Owens’ accomplice in the robbery, Steven Golden, signed a sworn statement saying Owens did not shoot Graves and was not at the scene that night, the USA Today Network’s Greenville News reported.
“Freddie Owens is not the person who shot Eileen Graves at the Speedway on Nov. 1, 1997,” Golden told the South Carolina Supreme Court. “Freddie was not there when I robbed the Speedway that day.”
On Thursday, the South Carolina Supreme Court denied a stay of the execution, saying the affidavit did not trump Owens’ previous confessions. Owens’ final hope is Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, who has the power to grant clemency in the case.
Here’s what you need to know about the execution.
What crime was Freddie Eugene Owens convicted of?
Owens and Golden were convicted in the death of Graves during a robbery at a Greenville, South Carolina, convenience store where Graves worked. Graves was shot in the head after telling the men he couldn’t open the store’s safe.
Owens has consistently maintained that he was in bed at home at the time of the robbery, and Golden’s testimony supports that claim.
Golden said he followed detectives’ instructions to testify that Owens was with him during the robbery because he feared the death penalty. “I swapped Freddie for the person who was with me at the Speedway that night,” Golden said in a statement to police.
“I did it because I knew that’s what the police wanted me to say, and because I thought that if I told them the real killer’s name, he or his associates might kill me,” he said. “I still fear that, but Freddie wasn’t actually there.”
Golden avoided the death penalty by making a plea deal with prosecutors and testifying against Owens; his murder charge was reduced to voluntary manslaughter and he was sentenced to 28 years in prison.
Responding to the state Supreme Court’s decision to allow the death penalty, one of Owens’ lawyers, Gerald Bo King, said he was “disappointed” with the ruling “despite the emergence of compelling evidence of his innocence.”
“The state of South Carolina is about to execute a man for a crime he didn’t commit,” he said.
Who was Freddie Eugene Owens?
Owens’ childhood was filled with neglect, abuse, trauma and psychological difficulties. According to court documents obtained by USA Today, Owens’ sister described her father as extremely violent and abusive, saying he would “regularly” beat the children “until they bled” with bats, beer cans, extension cords and belts.
Owens’ mother, Dora Diane Mason, said her father abused her as a child.
“When Freddie was about a year old, very small, I remember my dad getting really angry with him and hitting him and shaking him violently,” Mason said. “Even after he stopped crying and I was able to hold him, nothing I did would stop Freddie from crying.”
Owens now goes by the alternate name “Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah” after converting to Islam in prison, and is still referred to as Owens in court records.
When he was first imprisoned, he wrote detailed letters to the woman he loved, sometimes expressing anger and jealousy, and sometimes revealing a very vulnerable side, writing, “I am as weak as a child.”
Death Row Letters: Read Freddie Owens’ Vulnerable and Angry Thoughts
Who is Eileen Grainger Graves?
Arte Graves, who was 18 when her mother was murdered, said she remembers how hard-working and fun her mother was.
A single mother, Eileen Graves worked three jobs to support her children: at a Speedway convenience store, a Kmart and a Bi-Lo supermarket.
“My mother always reminded us to look out for each other and that we were a family,” Arte Graves, now 45, told USA Today in an interview. “We always had fun. I loved wrestling as a kid, so my mother would take me to wrestling shows at the old auditorium.”
His mother, he said, was also strong, determined and loving.
Arte Graves said he had just moved to Delaware for college when his mother was killed, then quickly returned to South Carolina to live with his younger siblings, who were 10 and 11 years old at the time. He still lives in the state, where he runs a small trucking company.
He said of his mother: “I miss her every day.”
When and where will Freddie Eugene Owens be executed?
Owens is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. Friday at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina.
What would Freddie Eugene Owens’ last meal be?
Details of his final meal will be released Friday, said South Carolina Department of Corrections spokeswoman Christy Shane.
Owens will have a chance to say some final words before he’s killed. Check out USA TODAY to find out what they are.
Who will witness the execution of Freddie Eugene Owens?
Arte Graves told USA Today that he will be one of the witnesses to the execution, but it has yet to be decided whether other family members will witness the execution.
The execution will be attended by the following members of the media:
Part of the USA TODAY Network The Greenville News Associated Press Fox Carolina Charleston Post and Courier
When will the country’s next execution take place?
Owens’ execution is the first of five scheduled in just six days in the United States. Also on Tuesday, Texas plans to execute Travis James Mullis for the 2008 murder of his son, and Missouri is set to execute Marcellus Williams for the stabbing death of a former reporter in 1998, though prosecutors and the victim’s family argue Williams should be spared because he is likely innocent.
Tuesday’s double execution will be followed by two more back-to-back executions on Thursday: Alabama plans to use nitrogen gas to execute Alan Eugene Miller, who shot and killed three co-workers in 1999, despite evidence that he suffered from mental illness and despite a witness to the state’s previous nitrogen gas execution in January calling the method “horrific.”
Also Thursday, Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Emanuel Littlejohn, who shot and killed a convenience store clerk in 1992 but denied the crime.
If all five executions are carried out, the US will have executed 18 people on death row this year, with six more scheduled and more likely to be added.
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a featured news reporter for USA TODAY. Email him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com. Follow him at X @fern_cerv_.