Lethal Injection, Electrocution, Death by Firing Squad: Murder Convict Freddie Eugene Owens Gets 3 Brutal Options To Choose From for His Execution in USA

Mumbai, August 26: Freddie Eugene Owens, a 46-year-old double murder convict in the South Carolina prison in the USA, has been given the choice between three brutal execution methods—lethal injection, electrocution and death by firing squad—for his death row conviction scheduled for September 20, 2024. Owens' execution will be South Carolina's first since 2011, after over a decade of unintentional pause in executions due to the expiration of the state's supply of lethal injections.

Freddie Owens, who has been sentenced to death during three separate failed appeals, was found guilty of murdering Irene Graves, a store clerk at the Greenville County gas station, during a chain of robberies back in 1997. Further, Owens has confessed to murdering his cellmate at the Greenville County jail. In his trial testimony for the latter's murder, Owens gave a detailed description of how he murdered his cellmate by stabbing and choking him, burning his eyes and finally stomping on him, as another inmate remained silent in his bunk.

The South Carolina prison has five days to confirm that all three execution methods are available for Owens. It also has to prove Owens' lawyers that the lethal injection drug will have a correct and stable mixture to ensure a painless death, as per the South Carolina Supreme Court's 2023 interpretation of the secrecy law on executions. Post this, Owens will have another week to confirm his choice of execution from the three provided, and if does not choose, the state will, by default, send him to the electric chair. US: First-Ever Execution of Death Row Inmate by Nitrogen Gas in January 2024, Check Date.

Owens To Choose From Three Methods of Execution

Option 1 - Death by Lethal Injection

In this method, the convict is injected with a combination of drugs that provide a painless and quick death. The state of South Carolina has shifted from using a mixture of three drugs to using just one - pentobarbital - for its lethal injections as per the protocols of federal executions. However, it is the state's responsibility to prove that the death by these injections will be painless despite the secrecy maintained by companies manufacturing these drugs.

"The lack of transparency about the source of the execution drugs, how they were obtained and whether (they) can bring about as painless a death as possible is still of grave concern to the lawyers that represent persons on death row," attorney John Blume expressed via email, as per a report in the UK's Mirror.

Option 2 - Death by Firing Squad

It was in 2021 that the South Carolina General Assembly authorised the creation of a firing squad to provide the inmates facing death row with a choice between it and the electric chair that the state purchased in 1912. Some Democrats support the firing squad claiming it to be a quicker and most painless execution method. The last execution by firing squad in the US took place in Utah in 2010, according to the non-profit Death Penalty Information Centre.

Option 3 - Electrocution by Electric Chair

This is the default method of execution that the state will resort to if Freddie Eugene Owens does not choose one of the three methods provided to him for his execution. Introduced at the end of the 19th century, the first execution by the electric chair was in 1890 of American murderer William Kemmler. Soon, most states of US adopted it as their preferred method of execution. An alternative to hanging, in this method, the person is strapped to a wooden chair and electrocuted via electrodes attached to his head and leg. However, the Nebraska Supreme Court ruled electric chair execution as "cruel and unusual punishment" on February 8, 2008. Russia: 4 Prison Officers Killed After ISIS Affiliated Inmates Takes Staff and Guards Hostage During Disciplinary Meeting in Volgograd, Attackers Shot Dead by Snipers. 

Another Option - Plead Mercy to Governor

This is the last option that Owens has - to plead mercy with the Republican government from the state's Governor Henry McMaster. On approval of clemency by McMaster, Owens will be given a sentence reduction to life without parole. However, no South Carolina governor has ever granted clemency in the modern era of the death penalty.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 26, 2024 12:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).