COLUMBIA, SC (AP) – South Carolina has put inmate Freddie Owens to death in the state’s first execution in more than a decade.
Friday’s execution came after an unintended 13-year pause on capital punishment in South Carolina that came about because prison officials couldn’t get the drugs needed for lethal injections.
Owens was convicted of the 1997 killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk during a robbery.
While on trial, Owens killed a person incarcerated at a county jail.
His confession to that attack was read to two different juries and a judge who all sentenced him to death.
The 46-year-old Owens was pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m.
