A man who was on South Carolina's death row for nearly two decades has been granted life imprisonment without parole, two years after his original sentence was overturned by a federal court.
In 2002, Quincy Allen committed four murders : a woman he picked up on a Columbia street; a man in the restaurant where he worked; and two men at a Surry County, North Carolina, convenience store. He received a death sentence for the two South Carolina killings and a life sentence for the North Carolina crimes, to which he pleaded guilty.
However, in 2022, a federal appeals court overturned his death sentence . The court stated that the judge who ordered his execution overlooked psychiatric issues resulting from a troubled childhood, including a mother who began evicting him from home in fourth grade and a stepfather who pointed an unloaded gun at his head and pulled the trigger.
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Rather than pursuing the death penalty again, prosecutors agreed to a life sentence. In return, Allen, now 44, agreed never to appeal, as per news reports. With Allen's resentencing, the number of inmates on South Carolina's death row has dropped to 32, down from 63 in early 2011 when the state last carried out an execution.
The remaining inmates have either died of natural causes or, like Allen, had their death sentences commuted to other prison terms following successful appeals. South Carolina's death penalty operations have been in a state of uncertainty for 13 years, ever since the pharmacy supplying essential drugs for lethal injections ceased its services demanding anonymity.
The state has implemented a protective law, altered its lethal injection method to a single drug approach and obtained the required compound. It has also authorized executions by firing squad and the old-fashioned electric chair.
Nonetheless, the legality of this protection law and the question if executing via gunshots or electrocution falls under cruel and unusual punishments are being examined by South Carolina Supreme Court. Speaking of Allen's situation, prosecutors revealed that after his death sentence was overturned in 2022, the victim's families chose to end the legal fights and agreed on his life imprisonment.
Allen murdered Jedediah Harr, the brother of Scott Farewell, as Harr courageously tried to shield a pregnant woman. Farewell confessed he had wished for Allen's death until almost 15 years ago, when hearing an interview with an Alabama prison warden profoundly changed his perspective.
The warden shared about his raw, intense conversations with death row inmates in their last weeks. "They're men, just like me, with emotions," exclaimed Farewell. "Suddenly, I had this overwhelming urge to forgive."
Among those present in court on Monday, Farewell was reportedly the only family member. Sheriff Leon Lott of Richland County, who led the investigation into the South Carolina murders, expressed his belief that Allen deserved capital punishment due to the fear he instilled in the community.
"He's going to kill again. He likes it," Lott shared with WIS-TV outside the courtroom, adding, "He's a lucky man because the system wore the victim down."
Prosecutor Byron Gipson concurred that Allen merited death but emphasized that he couldn't let his personal sentiments override the desires of the victims' families. Before his resentencing, Allen read out an apology for his crimes, stating that despite seeking help for his severe mental issues, he never found the right resources.
"After years of reflection, I have come to understand how my background and upbringing did not prepare me to navigate conflicts or handle stressful situations," he confessed. Allen's legal team pleaded with the judge who initially sentenced him to death to spare his life, referencing reports from psychologists and others that a history of abuse during his childhood resulted in serious mental illness.
The reports indicated that Allen was either sent or voluntarily went to a psychiatric hospital seven times in five years leading up to the murders, which occurred when he was 22. They mentioned an instance when Allen threatened to commit suicide by jumping off a roof.
When the police contacted his mother, she arrived hours later, laughed, and simply walked away. Allen's mother began forcing him out of the house when he was in fourth grade, with Allen recalling nights spent sleeping in bushes, a friend's treehouse, or on the McDonald's playground, as per the reports. However, Judge G. Thomas Cooper expressed disbelief in these accounts and sentenced Allen to death.
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