South Carolina executed Freddie Eugene Owens on Friday for the fatal shooting of a convenience store clerk, after his mother pleaded for reconsideration, arguing state officials committed “serious improprieties” in light of new sworn testimony from a key witness in the case.
Owens, 46, was executed by lethal injection at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, becoming the first inmate executed by the state in more than a decade and the 14th in the country this year. His execution began at 6:35 p.m. ET and he was pronounced dead 20 minutes later, at 6:55 p.m.
A South Carolina jury convicted Owens of the murder of Eileen Grainger Graves, 41, a single mother of three whose son described her as a hard-working, fun mother in an interview with USA Today this week.
“Freddie Owens did not kill Mr. Graves, and his death tonight is a tragedy,” his attorney, Gerald “Bo” King, said in a statement to USA Today. “Mr. Owens’ childhood was filled with incomprehensible suffering, and he spent his adult life in prison for a crime he did not commit. The legal errors, hidden deals and false evidence that made tonight’s death possible should shame us all.”
On Wednesday, Owens’ accomplice in the robbery signed a sworn affidavit saying Owens did not shoot Graves and was not at the scene of the crime, reversing a decades-old claim, the Greenville News, a USA Today Network affiliate, reported.
The statement did not sway the courts or Republican Governor Henry McMaster, who refused to pardon Owens shortly before his execution. Outside the prison where the execution took place, protesters called Owens “Henry McMurder.”
After witnessing the execution, Eileen Graves’ son, Arte Graves, told USA Today he was glad the execution had finally come to an end and said he thought it was too late to submit a sworn statement at the last moment.
“If that’s true, I think he should have said something sooner. It’s something that a person has to deal with on their conscience,” Arte Graves said.
Here’s what you need to know about Owens’ execution, whether he ever said anything last, what his last meal was, and more.
Freddie Graves Execution Day
A South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesman said Graves’ final meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, a well-done rib-eye steak, six chicken wings, french fries, two strawberry sodas and a slice of apple pie.
Owens’ last words before dying were to say “goodbye” to his lawyer.
The murder of Eileen Granger Graves
Owens and co-defendant Steven Golden were convicted of the murder, which occurred during a robbery of the Greenville, South Carolina, convenience store where Graves worked, according to court documents.
Graves, a single mother who worked three jobs to support her children, was shot in the head after she told the men she couldn’t open the store’s safe. Golden’s new affidavit backs up Owens’s insistence that he was in bed at the time of the robbery.
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.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Owens’ execution can go ahead, saying Golden’s new testimony did not outweigh confessions Owens allegedly made to his girlfriend, his mother and two police officers.
Freddie Owens’ mother pleads for mercy, lawyer ‘disappointed’
Following Golden’s new statement, Owens’ mother, Dora Mason, denounced all decision-makers who had the power to intervene in her son’s execution, saying they were committing a “gross injustice.”
“Today I witnessed the state’s refusal to consider new evidence and refusal to acknowledge the possibility of error,” she said in a statement obtained by The Greenville News. “Freddy is more than a conviction. He is a person, a son, a brother and a friend. He deserves sympathy, understanding and the opportunity for a fair trial. However, the justice system has failed him and the victims at every turn.”
Mason issued a statement hours before the execution, urging South Carolinians to “reflect on the fallibility of our justice system and the irreversibility of the death penalty. I urge you to question, especially when in doubt, the morality of taking a human life in the name of justice.”
Gerald Beau King, one of Owens’ lawyers, said he was “disappointed” with the state Supreme Court’s decision “despite compelling evidence emerging of his innocence” and that South Carolina is “executing a man for a crime he did not commit.”
Democratic state Sen. Deon Tedder wrote the governor in a letter that he has received numerous calls expressing concern about new information in the case and that the execution should be halted, saying “it is essential that the state exercises good judgment when carrying out an irreversible act.”
“We do not want South Carolina to execute the wrong person for the first time in more than a decade,” he said.
USA TODAY has reached out to the governor’s office for comment.
Death Row Letters: Read Freddie Owens’ Vulnerable and Angry Thoughts
Graves’ son attends Owens’ execution
Eileen Graves’ eldest son, Arte Graves, told USA Today earlier this week that he plans to attend Owens’ execution.
“I honestly just want to see him go,” he said. “I just want to see him go.”
Arte Graves described his mother as a hard-working woman who made his childhood a fun one filled with happy memories.
“She was a good woman, a fun woman. We always had fun,” he said. “I miss her every day.”
“I’m just happy this is over and we can move on,” Arte Graves said after the execution.
Arte Graves described the moments before Owens’ execution was to be completed, delayed by nearly an hour as Owens’ defense filed a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Anyway, get it over with,” Arte Graves said. “It looked like he tried to look our way but he couldn’t lift his head very much. We made full eye contact but I don’t know if he noticed me. I could see him but I couldn’t see much of his face.”
When will the next execution take place in the United States?
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.
Contributors: Terry Benjamin II, Amanda Lee Myers
Fernando Cervantes Jr. is a featured news reporter for USA TODAY. Email him at fernando.cervantes@gannett.com. Follow him at X @fern_cerv_.