Execution Controversy Emerges in South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The attorneys representing Freddie Owens, a death row inmate in South Carolina who is set to be executed later this month, filed an appeal on Tuesday, arguing that state prison officials had not disclosed enough information about the lethal injection drug intended to be used to take his life.

Inmate Seeks Information About the Execution Drug

Owens’ defence team is requesting that the prison administration provide the full report from the state scientists who tested the sedative, pentobarbital. However, the state provided only a summary stating that the drug is stable, pure, and potent enough to cause death based on procedures carried out in other states.

The South Carolina legal system has protected many details about the drug’s synthesis under the 2023 shield law, arguing that such specifics could be used to identify the compounding pharmacy responsible for its production. The state has not executed an inmate since 2011, partially due to difficulties in securing a lethal injection drug supplier that would agree to work without public exposure.

Legal Battles Precede Execution Date

The issue of how much information should be given to a sentenced inmate is one of many legal disputes presently being tackled by the South Carolina Supreme Court as the execution date of Owens approaches. Owens is slated for execution on Sept. 20 for the fatal shooting of a Greenville convenience store clerk amid a 1997 robbery.

Co-defendant’s Testimony in Question

Owens’ attorneys have also asked for a delay, claiming that Owens’ co-defendant, Steven Golden, lied about the absence of a plea deal and possibilities of receiving a death sentence in exchange for his testimony. Golden was later sentenced to 28 years, with no other evidence regarding who triggered the fatal shot except his testimony stating Owens killed the clerk due to her inability to open the store’s safe.

Inmate Faces Difficult Choice

Owens, 46, faces a Friday deadline to inform prison officials of his preferred method of execution: lethal injection, electrocution, or the newly established firing squad. If he does not specify, the default execution method will be electrocution. His attorney, Gerald King Jr., argued in court documents that a fair decision cannot be made without more information about the lethal injection drug, which is part of a new one-drug protocol being used by the state.

The Call for Transparency

The defence team is demanding the complete report from the State Law Enforcement Division laboratory that tested the pentobarbital, promising to redact the names of the technicians under the shield law. In support of their claim, they provided a sworn statement from Dr. Michaela Almgren, a University of South Carolina pharmacy professor, who insisted that the details furnished by prison officials were insufficient for an informed decision about the purity, stability, or potency of the lethal injection drug.

Dr. Almgren also highlighted the failure of the report to provide necessary information such as when the drugs were tested, the ‘beyond use date’ at which point a compounded drug becomes unstable, and storage conditions. The potential instability of the drug could lead to severe pain during injection, blood vessel damage, or failure to result in the death of the inmate.