By Skylar Laird
Freddie Owens asked his attorney to make the decision because of his religious beliefs
COLUMBIA — A death row inmate’s attorney can decide how he will die, the state Supreme Court decided.
Freddie Owens is scheduled for execution Sept. 20. He has three options for how his execution will be carried out — lethal injection, firing squad or electrocution — under a state law the high court upheld last month.
But he signed his decision-making powers over to his attorney Emily Paavola before the state scheduled his execution, allowing her to choose for him.
In an order Tuesday, justices ruled the authorization valid and said the Department of Corrections must accept her choice for Owens. The high court denied the state’s request for a hearing so that Owens can publicly declare he understands the finality of Paavola’s decision.
Under state law, if Paavola does not opt in writing for lethal injection or firing squad by Friday evening, then Owens will be executed by electrocution, the default method since 2021.
Owens does not want to die in the electric chair. But he has a religious objection to choosing how he will die because he considers it a form of suicide, according to his attorneys.
“Mr. Owens’s Muslim faith teaches that suicide is a sin, and it is forbidden,” Paavola wrote in a legal filing defending Owens’ decision.
In separate filings Tuesday, Owens’ other attorneys are seeking more information about the drugs that would be used for lethal injection. They’re asking the high court to require the prisons agency to disclose details so that Paavola can make an informed decision.
They argued details such as how the drugs are being stored and tested can be disclosed without violating the state’s so-called shield law. The agency was able to secure lethal drugs last year after legislators extended secrecy protections to the drugs and their purchase.
Lethal injection
As required under state law, Stirling testified in front of a judge last week that the state is prepared to execute Owens by any of the three methods available.
But Stirling’s statement did not include enough information, his attorneys argued.
They want to know how and when the State Law Enforcement Division tested the drug for purity, how the Department of Corrections is storing the injection ahead of the execution and when the dose is set to expire.
“You need to know these facts to know that the drugs will still be effective on September 20, when the department intends to use them,” said Michaela Almgren, a University of South Carolina professor, in a sworn statement.
If anything goes wrong with the drugs, Owens could suffer during his execution, or even survive and be left with serious health issues, Almgren’s statement said.
The state attorney general’s office has until Thursday to respond to the defense attorneys’ claims, the state Supreme Court ordered.
Another pending decision
Owens is still waiting on a decision from the court as to whether his execution, which would be the first in the state since 2011, will move forward.
On Friday, Owens’ attorneys asked the high court to halt his execution, claiming they found new evidence in his case that could warrant a new trial.
Owens was convicted in 1999 of shooting gas station clerk Irene Graves during a string of robberies with friends two years prior. Graves was shot in the head because she didn’t know how to open the store’s safe. Owens and his accomplice left with $37.29 from the cash register.
Steven Golden, who was robbing the gas station with Owens, was only eyewitness for Owens’ trial. Surveillance cameras showed two masked figures enter the gas station, and Golden testified that Owens was the one to shoot Graves.
But Golden, who was also charged and pleaded guilty, had a secret deal with prosecutors, Owens’ attorneys claimed last week in filings.
Owens’ attorneys are not asking the court to decide whether those claims are legitimate. Instead, they want the high court to halt his execution so they can seek a new hearing in Greenville County, according to court filings.
After Owens was convicted of killing Graves, he also killed another inmate at the Greenville Detention Center. Owens confessed to the crime in court the next day, saying he did it because he was innocent, according to court documents.
Owens has been scheduled for execution twice before, both times in 2021. The high court halted both executions amid legal questions about how he would die. Those questions were resolved with last month’s ruling.
Owens is one of 32 men on death row. Five others have exhausted their appeals and are next up to be executed, though the state Supreme Court said it would wait at least five weeks between scheduling executions.
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