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Man from Greenville is expected to be the first person executed in South Carolina since 2011

A Greenville man may be the first person to be executed by the state since 2011.

The South Carolina Supreme Court late Friday issued the South Carolina Department of Justice with the execution warrant for Freddie Eugene Owens, 46. His execution is scheduled for September 20.

In 1999, Ownes was convicted of murder, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy in connection with the murder of 41-year-old Irene Graves in a Speedway convenience store on Halloween 1997. He was sentenced to death.

Owens' lawyers filed at least two appeals to reduce his sentence to life imprisonment. Both requests were denied, the last in September 2006.

More: ACLU calls on court to allow death row inmate to tell his story before execution

According to court documents, Owens and another person robbed the now-demolished Laurens Road convenience store at 4 a.m. on November 1, 1997. Owens shot Graves in the head after she told them she couldn't open the safe.

During the trial, prosecutors showed surveillance footage from the store. Two men were seen entering the building. Minutes later, one of the men was seen shooting Graves.

Owens claimed he was home in bed at the time of the robbery that led to the murder. However, his co-defendant, Stephen Andra Golden, pleaded guilty before his trial began and told investigators that Owens shot Graves.

Owens was originally scheduled to be executed on June 25, 2021, but he and other death row inmates filed a lawsuit that stopped the execution.

The lawsuit alleged that the choice of the death penalty, firing squad and electric chair violated the state constitution. Last month, the state Supreme Court declared the choice constitutional.

Owens must choose a method of death 14 days before the execution date: lethal injection or firing squad. If he refuses, he will automatically be sent to the electric chair. Another man from Greenville, 36-year-old Jefferey Brian Motts, was the last to be executed in May 2011. He died by lethal injection.

In Oklahoma, Mississippi, Idaho and Utah, executions are carried out by firing squad. In five other states – Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Arkansas – the electric chair is used.

During his 1999 trial, Owens beat his cellmate, 28-year-old Christopher B. Lee, to death. He admitted to investigators with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division that he punched, kicked and choked Lee until he was sure Lee had stopped breathing. He also stabbed Lee multiple times in the face and eye with a pen.

In his confession to SLED investigators, Owens wrote, “I really did it because I was wrongfully convicted of murder.”

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