By Maribel Velazquez
07 Sep 2024, 13:17 PM EDT
The authorities of South Carolina forced to Freddie Owens, 46, to choose between three execution methods: lethal injection, electric chair or firing squad for the murder of convenience store employee Irene Graves in Greenville in South Carolina, in 1997.
The lawyer representing the first prisoner to be sentenced to death since 2011, Emily Paavola, reported that Your client will be executed through a lethal injectionafter the prisoner refused to choose between the three options, because according to Owens, doing so would be “akin to suicide.”
The decision on the manner in which Owens will lose his life It comes a week after he was presented with three execution options and which he ultimately left in the hands of his legal representative.
“I have known Mr. Owens for 15 years. Given his circumstances and the information available to me at this time, I made the best decision I felt I could make on her behalf. “I sincerely hope that the assurances from the South Carolina Department of Corrections are honored,” Paavola said.
It is known that if the prisoner had not made a decision before Friday, state law would have considered the electric chair.
Owen was sentenced to capital punishment in 1999 and is the first of five prisoners who have exhausted all their appeals and He now faces execution after a 13-year term in which the state’s execution chamber has not been used.
Much of the delay was due to the difficulties the state has had in acquiring drugs for lethal injectionsdue to the global boycott of Pharmaceutical companies that do not agree that their products are used to kill people.
As the execution date approaches, scheduled for September 20Owens’ legal defense hopes to delay the event through last-minute legal challenges.
In addition to legal efforts, Owens also has the option of avoiding lethal injection through clemency of state governor Henry McMaster, who has followed the tradition of not considering clemency until minutes before the execution.
Continue reading:
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