Friday, January 31

South Carolina prepares for third execution since September

COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the state works through a backlog of inmates who have exhausted their appeals and the state is unable to locate lethal injection medications, South Carolina is getting ready to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September.

The execution of Marion Bowman Jr. is set for Friday at 6 p.m. at a penitentiary in Columbia. Bowman, 44, was found guilty of murder in connection with the shooting death of a buddy whose charred body was discovered in a car’s trunk.

Since his imprisonment, Bowman has insisted on his innocence. According to his attorneys, he was found guilty based on the evidence of other acquaintances and family members who were offered deals or had allegations against them dropped by the prosecution.

Bowman, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, was given a life sentence in exchange for a plea deal, but he refused and proceeded to trial.

Following Friday’s execution, the state will end a 13-year hold that was partially prompted by state officials’ inability to procure lethal injection medications. Prison officials were able to locate a compounding pharmacy that would create the pentobarbital if its identity was kept secret after the General Assembly established a shield law.

Bowman is not requesting clemency from Governor Henry McMaster. Bowman didn’t want to spend further decades behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit, according to his attorney Lindsey Vann.

Vann said in a statement Thursday that Marion’s decision is a strong rejection to validate an unfair process that has already taken so much of his life after more than 20 years of fighting a dysfunctional system that has let him down at every stage.

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In the 45 executions that have taken place in South Carolina since the death penalty was reintroduced in 1976, no governor has shown mercy by reducing a death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of release.

In 2002, Bowman was found guilty in Dorchester County of murder in connection with the 2001 death of 21-year-old Kandee Martin. As part of plea agreements, some of his acquaintances and relatives testified against him.

Bowman was upset because Martin owed him money, according to one buddy. Bowman, a second witness, believed Martin was wearing a recording device, which led to his detention on suspicion.

Bowman denied killing Martin, but he admitted that he provided drugs to the longtime acquaintance, who occasionally paid him with sex.

Like the other two prisoners that were put to death since the break ended, Bowman is Black. According to his lawyers’ final appeal, his trial lawyer showed too much empathy for his white victim. The Supreme Court of South Carolina ruled that the argument lacked validity.

Bowman’s weight is another issue that his attorneys brought up. Bowman is reported as weighing 389 pounds (176 kilograms) in prison records, but an anesthesiologist expressed concern that South Carolina’s covert lethal injection procedures do not account for this information. Determining the appropriate dosage of medications for obese patients and inserting an IV into a blood artery might be challenging.

According to autopsy data, two doses of pentobarbital were administered by prison officials eleven minutes apart during the prior execution.

South Carolina was one of the states with the highest number of executions prior to the 13-year moratorium. Prison officials were able to locate a compounding pharmacy that was willing to provide the pentobarbital used to execute convicts because of a shield law that was established last year that permitted the supplier to remain anonymous.

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In July, the Texas Supreme Court gave its approval to resume executions. Richard Moore was put to death on November 1st, while Freddie Owens was killed by lethal injection on September 20th.

Until the last three prisoners who have exhausted their appeals are executed, the court will permit an execution every five weeks.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, South Carolina has executed 45 prisoners. It was performing three executions year on average in the early 2000s. More prisoners have been executed in nine states.

However, the number of people on South Carolina’s death row has decreased since the inadvertent halt to execution. In early 2011, there were 63 condemned inmates in the state. At the moment, it has thirty. Following successful appeals, some 20 prisoners were removed from death row and given various jail terms. Natural causes have claimed the lives of others.

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