South Carolina's first execution in over a decade will likely be a Greenville County man

A Greenville man is expected to be the first person executed by the state since 2011.

The South Carolina Supreme issued the execution order to the South Carolina Department of Corrections for Freddie Eugene Owens, 46, late Friday. His execution has been scheduled for Sept. 20.

Shortly after the death penalty order, the state high court announced a pause in executions until resolving a request by death row inmates, including Owens, to set at least a 13-week interval between executions.

The other death row inmates listed in the motion include Richard Bernard Moore , Brad Keith Sigmon, and Mikal D. Mahdi.

According to the motion, the inmates argued that scheduling executions close to one another heightens the risk of error during the execution, likely resulting in cruel or unusual punishment. The inmates also said multiple executions in a small time period will overburden the corrections staff involved in the process, which would heighten the risk for an execution being cruel or unusual and scheduling executions at a more "frenetic pace" would result in hurried litigation and adjudication of any critical concerns that arise during the election and execution processes.

Owens's execution date will stand despite the inmates' request, according to the court.

In 1999, Ownes was convicted of murder, armed robbery, and criminal conspiracy in the 1997 Halloween murder of Irene Graves, 41, at a Speedway convenience store. He was sentenced to death.

Attorneys for Owens filed at least two appeals seeking to reduce his sentence to life in prison. Both were denied, the last in September 2006.

More: ACLU asks court to allow death row inmate to tell his story before being executed

According to court documents, at 4 a.m. on Nov. 1, 1997, Owens and another person robbed the now-demolished convenience store on Laurens Road, with Owens shooting Graves in the head after she told them that she could not open the safe.

During the trial, prosecutors showed surveillance footage of the store. Two men were seen entering the building. Minutes later, one of the men was shown shooting Graves.

Owens maintained he was at home in bed at the time of the robbery turned murder. However, his co-defendant, Stephen Andra Golden, pled guilty before his trial started and told investigators that Owens shot Graves.

Owens was originally scheduled to be put to death on June 25, 2021, but he and other death row inmates filed a lawsuit that halted the execution.

The lawsuit contended the choices of execution, firing squad, and the electric chair went against the state constitution. Last month, the state Supreme Court deemed the choices constitutional.

Owens must decide on his method of death, lethal injection or firing squad, 14 days before execution day. If he declines to decide, he will automatically be given the electric chair. Another Greenville man, Jefferey Brian Motts, 36, was the last person the state executed in May 2011. He died by lethal injection.

Jace Woodrum, the American Civil Liberties Union executive director for South Carolina, condemned the order to execute Owens.

"The death penalty is costly in practice, arbitrary and racist in its application, and ineffective at deterring crime, Woodrum said. "We call on Governor McMaster to grant clemency to Mr. Owens before the state resumes killing in our name."

Oklahoma, Mississippi, Idaho, and Utah, carry out firing squad executions. Five other states, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Arkansas, use the electric chair.

While incarcerated during his trial in 1999, Owens beat to death his cellmate, 28-year-old Christopher B. Lee. He admitted to investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcment Division that he punched, kicked and choked Lee until he was sure Lee had stopped breathing. He also stabbed Lee multiple times in the face and eye with a pen.

During Owens's confession to SLED investigators, he wrote "I really did it because I was wrongly convicted of murder."

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: South Carolina's first execution in over a decade will likely be a Greenville County man