South Carolina human rights group demands state let death row killer break major rule they call 'unconstitutional'

A recent decision by the South Carolina Supreme Court has set off a flurry of litigation as the controversial laws surrounding the death penalty in the Southern state once again come into the spotlight .

Now, a human rights organization is lobbying for death row inmate Marion Bowman Jr. to be able to speak publicly and share his story with the world before he's ultimately executed, likely this year or early next year.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Carolina filed a motion asking for expedited consideration of preliminary injunction on Aug. 13 that demanded that the U.S. District Court "act quickly before it is too late" to tell Bowman's story.

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Of the states that still offer the death penalty as the highest form of punishment for certain capital crimes, South Carolina is the only one that doesn't allow death row inmates to be interviewed by the media. In fact, the state doesn't let any inmates be interviewed by the media.

"That South Carolina shrouds capital punishment in secrecy acknowledges a powerful truth: The death penalty is barbaric and unjust, and public scrutiny would end it for good. The public deserves a chance to meaningfully encounter the person being murdered on their behalf. We aim to give them that," Allen Chaney, the legal director of ACLU-SC, told Greenville News .

The ACLU reportedly filed a federal lawsuit against the South Carolina Department of Corrections in February to force it to allow inmates to speak publicly. According to Greenville News, the suit calls the ban unconstitutional, alleging that it goes against the First Amendment rights of inmates.

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People in South Carolina deserve to hear from the people who are about to be killed in their name, and they deserve to hear it in the incarcerated person’s own words," ACLU spokesperson Paul Bowers told Greenville News. "The death penalty is one of, if not the most extreme case of government and its power over its citizens. Its functions should be transparent to the public. This media ban in the prisons runs counter to that, and it renders government opaque."

But why did ACLU-SC feel the need to expedite its filing that would allow Bowman to speak? On July 31, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that executions by electric chair and firing squad were constitutional and, therefore, legal, meaning the state could start executions again after a 13-year-hiatus due to a paucity of lethal injection drugs.

Bowman hasn't yet exhausted all his petitions to commute or end his sentence, and it was reported that he plans to petition the governor soon in an attempt to have his sentence changed from death to life in prison.

The death row inmate was convicted of shooting and killing KanDee Louise Martin, 21, of Orangeburg, South Carolina, on Feb. 17, 2001. After the murder, he reportedly set a car on fire that had her body in it to hide any evidence. He was later charged and found guilty of both murder and arson.

Bowman was just 22 when he was sentenced to death on May 24, 2002, and is now 44. Bowers said he hopes he and the ACLU can get the court to allow him to share his story publicly. Chrysti Shain, a South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson, told Greenville News that the ban on incarcerated people speaking publicly was established for the well-being of victims as she vowed a response to the lawsuit hoping to lift the ban "will be provided to the court within the time period allowed by the rules."