Executions in SC would continue monthly until at least March under AG’s suggested timeline

The South Carolina Supreme Court in Columbia. (Mary Ann Chastain / Special to the SC Daily Gazette)

COLUMBIA — Calling inmates’ request to schedule executions 13 weeks apart an unnecessary delay, attorneys for South Carolina instead suggest intervals of no more than 28 days.

The state Supreme Court said Friday it will not schedule any more executions until it rules on the motion from inmates’ attorneys to space out their deaths. Freddie Owens is still set to die Sept. 20 in the state’s first execution since 2011. Five other death row inmates face an imminent death warrant. The timing will depend on the high court’s decision.

State law does not set any mandatory time between executions. In fact, over a seven-week span in December 1998 and January 1999, South Carolina executed six inmates — two of them on the same day, the state attorney general’s office highlighted in its response to the inmates’ attorneys.

If the court agreed to 13-week intervals, only one more execution could be scheduled this year. “It would take all next year to complete” executions that have been on hold pending the high court’s ruling last month that upheld the state’s options for carrying out a death sentence, reads the response signed by Attorney General Alan Wilson and two deputy attorneys general.

They suggested four-week spans as a compromise.

“Whether within one day, one week or two weeks, nothing supports the necessity of three months between each execution as inmates now request,” they wrote in the response filed Monday.

SC death row inmate wants his attorney to decide how he will die

No state has executed more than four people so far this year, the inmates’ attorneys replied Wednesday.

Last year, the only states to execute more than four people were Texas, with eight, and Florida, with six, according to the Death Penalty Information Center .

The inmates’ attorneys argued that scheduling consecutive executions, such as five executions in five weeks, would raise multiple problems.

For one, executions in quick succession could increase the possibility of an error, potentially causing one of the condemned men to suffer as he died. Executioners would not have time to learn from mistakes during one execution and adjust protocols if necessary before the next. An inmate might also change his mind after learning that one method of execution had unexpected problems, the inmates’ attorneys wrote.

Staff members carrying out executions could also suffer physically and mentally from the toll of having to put multiple people to death in a short period of time, the attorneys continued.

The state called those concerns speculation, pointing out that none of those problems have come up in South Carolina.

“The Department of Corrections staff stand ready to accomplish their duty as required by our law with professionalism and dignity,” Wilson’s office wrote.

SC set to execute death row inmate next month, the state’s first execution in 13 years

South Carolina has not executed anyone since 2011. Two years later, the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs expired. In 2021, after the high court began halting executions due to the lack of available drugs, legislators made electrocution the default method and added firing squad as a possibility.

Four condemned inmates challenged the law as unconstitutional, but the state Supreme Court disagreed with them in a split opinion issued July 31 , allowing executions to resume.

The state is prepared to execute Owens by any of the three available methods, Corrections Director Bryan Stirling testified in front of a judge Wednesday, as required by law before an execution. Staff members tested all three methods and determined none had any problems, Stirling testified.

Lethal injection became an option again after a law making everything about the drug purchase secret enabled the prisons agency to restock.

“The state acknowledges that executions are resuming after a long delay, and that several notices may be issued at this time, but that is not so unheard of as would warrant the considerable delay requested,” Wilson’s office wrote, noting that the federal government executed 10 inmates in 2020 following a 17-year hiatus.

Exhausted appeals

Inmates’ attorneys also asked the court Wednesday to clarify the execution lineup. Owens was not the first of the condemned men to exhaust his appeals process, the inmates’ attorneys noted, pointing to the attorney general’s list. So, they’re unsure why the high court scheduled Owens first.

“It appears from the scheduling of Mr. Owens for execution that this Court is employing a different rubric than date of exhaustion when issuing execution dates,” the inmates’ attorneys wrote.

In total, eight men on death row have exhausted their appeals processes, according to Wilson’s office. Beyond Owen, four others have no pending petitions or litigation .

A sixth inmate, Steven Bixby, has one pending petition with the Supreme Court. However, it is not part of the normal appeals process, so the court could still issue a death warrant for him, according to Wilson’s office. Bixby was convicted in 2007 of killing two police officers during a 12-hour standoff after transportation officials tried to use eminent domain to expand a highway over part of his family’s property.

Two more are waiting for judges to rule whether they are mentally competent for execution.

Richard Moore was the first of the 32 men on death row to run out of appeals. Moore was convicted in 2001 of shooting and killing a convenience store clerk in Spartanburg with the clerk’s gun two years before. Brad Sigmon, who was convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001, ran out of appeals next.

Owens, who was the third to run out of appeals, was convicted in 1999 of killing gas station clerk Irene Graves two years prior as part of a crime spree because she didn’t know how to unlock the safe. He and his accomplice took $37.29 from the cash register.

After SC high court rules executions can go ahead, these 5 men could be scheduled to die

The night after Owens was convicted, he killed another inmate at the Greenville Detention Center, then confessed his crime in court the next day. The Supreme Court affirmed his death sentence in 2008 after twice sending it back to juries for resentencing. Both times, juries again recommended the death penalty.

Another question on the court’s plate is whether Owens should be allowed to let his attorney decide how he will die.

Owens signed his decision-making powers to his attorney Aug. 14, more than a week before the court issued his execution order. Stirling, director of the prisons agency, asked the court Monday to decide whether the attorney’s decision would be valid in that scenario, since state law doesn’t specifically address that question.

Attorneys for Owens and the state have until Friday to submit their responses to Stirling’s question.