South Carolina’s Supreme Court in a Sept. 19 ruling declined to stop the scheduled execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, which would be the state’s first execution in 13 years.
Owens was convicted in 1999 of the murder of Irene Graves during a robbery of a Speedway convenience store in 1997.
He filed motions to stay the execution on Aug. 30 and Sept. 5, but the court denied the motions in a Sept. 12 order.
Owens then submitted an “Emergency Motion to Reconsider Denial of Stay of Execution,” which the court rejected this week.
The execution, scheduled for Sept. 20, had been held up due to challenges in obtaining lethal injection drugs, as pharmaceutical companies refused to sell them if they could be publicly identified….