An attorney for the first person likely to be executed in South Carolina in 13 years has chosen lethal injection for his method of death.
The selection was made Friday by one of his attorneys, Emily Paavola, despite concerns over an affidavit attesting to the strength and potency of the drugs set to be used in the upcoming execution.
Freddie Owens is sent to be executed at 6 p.m. Sept. 20. Citing his Islamic faith, which he said would make choosing his own method of death “akin to suicide,” he petitioned the South Carolina Supreme Court to grant one of his lawyers power of attorney to make the selection for him.
Inmates in South Carolina are legally required to choose between lethal injection, firing squad and the electric chair for their method of execution.
“I have known Mr. Owens for 15 years. Under the circumstances, and in light of the information currently available to me, I made the best decision I felt I could make on his behalf. I sincerely hope that the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ assurances will hold true,” Paavola wrote in a statement provided to The State.
Owens was sentenced to death after being convicted of killing Speedway gas station clerk Irene Graves during an armed robbery in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 1997. Owens shot and killed Graves, a mother of three, when she was unable to open the safe inside of the convenience store.
Owens converted to Islam while in prison. He also legally changed his name to Khalil-Divine Black Sun-Allah, but in all legal documents is still referred to as “Freddie Owens.”
“Mr. Owens has a long-standing, deeply held religious conviction that physically signing the election form is taking an active role in bringing about his own death and is thus akin to suicide. Mr. Owens’s Muslim faith teaches that suicide is a sin, and it is forbidden,” Paavola wrote in a court filing submitted Aug. 29.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted Owens’ motion to assign his lawyers power of attorney to sign the form selecting his method of execution.
The selection of the lethal injection comes after Owens’ attorneys objected to the affidavit provided by South Carolina Department of Corrections Director Brian Stirling about the drugs used in the execution.
South Carolina law requires Stirling to attest to the purity and strength of the lethal drugs. In his affidavit, Stirling said that the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s lab had verified the purity and strength of the correction department’s pentobarbital, a powerful sedative used in executions to stop the inmate’s breathing.
While lawyers for Owens said that this affidavit did not provide enough information about the drug, its testing and storage, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled that Stirling’s affidavit was sufficient.
For their part, the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office accused Owens’ attorneys of using this objection as a pretext to breach the state’s “shield law,” which conceals the identity of companies that provide the drugs used in the lethal injection.
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