Inmate asks to delay execution, says co-defendant who blamed him for killing had secret deal

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- An inmate set to be executed in South Carolina in three weeks wants the state Supreme Court to delay the execution so his lawyers can argue his co-defendant who testified against him lied about having no plea deal in exchange for his testimony.

Attorneys for Freddie Owens also said in court papers filed late Friday that a juror saw a electronic stun device Owens had to wear in court to assure good behavior and a judge never talked about why he had to wear it.

It's part of a flurry of legal action as South Carolina tries to restart its death chamber after not putting an inmate to death in 13 years. At least six executions are looming.

Also on Friday, the South Carolina’s Supreme Court promised it would wait at least five weeks between executions.

Still unanswered by the justices is another legal question before Owens is brought to the death chamber on Sept. 20 — can Owens have his lawyer choose whether he dies by lethal injection, electrocution or by the new firing squad?

One of the busiest states for capital punishment, South Carolina hasn’t performed an execution since 2011. Its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and companies refused to sell more. But the addition of a secrecy law last year allowed the state to obtain a different drug.

Lawyers for the state have until Thursday to answer Owens' request to delay his execution while he presents his new evidence to a judge and asks for a new trial.

The bar is usually high to grant new trials after death row inmates use up all their appeals. Owens' lawyers said past attorneys scrutinized his case carefully, but this only came up in interviews as the potential of his death neared.

Owens, 46, was sentenced to death for killing convenience store clerk Irene Graves in Greenville in 1997. Co-defendant Steven Golden testified Owens shot Graves in the head because she couldn’t get the safe open.

There was surveillance video in the store, but it didn't show the shooting clearly. Prosecutors never found the weapon used and didn't present any scientific evidence linking Owens to the killing.

Golden told jurors at the 1999 trial there was no deal with prosecutors and he could be sentenced to death or life in prison even after testifying. But in a sworn statement signed Aug. 22, Golden said he cut a side deal with prosecutors and Owens' attorneys said that might have changed the minds of jurors who believed his testimony.

"My written plea agreement said the death penalty and life without parole were still possible outcomes and there were no specific guarantees about what my sentence would be. That wasn’t true. We had a verbal agreement that I would not get the death penalty or life without parole," Golden wrote in his statement.

Golden was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, according to court records.

On the issue of the electronic stun device, Owens' lawyers said courts have long required judges to explain to juries why defendants are wearing visible restraints like shackles and there must be debate by the judge balancing courtroom security versus the effect the device might have on a fair trial. They said that didn't happen in Owens' case.

Also on Friday, the state Supreme Court rejected a request from lawyers for the condemned inmates to set three months between executions to relieve pressure on prison staff that could lead to mistakes and give lawyers time to dedicate solely to each prisoner's case.

But the five weeks between executions was a compromise of sorts. Under state law and a timeline first issued when the justices ruled executions could restart last month, the Supreme Court could issue execution orders every week on Friday if it wishes. The state said prison officials told them four weeks would be fine.

Owens has until Sept. 6 to decide the method the state uses to kill him. He signed his power of attorney over to his lawyer, Emily Paavola, to make that decision for him.

“Mr. Owens has a long-standing, deeply held religious conviction that physically signing the election form is taking an active role in bringing about his own death and is thus akin to suicide. Mr. Owens’ Muslim faith teaches that suicide is a sin, and it is forbidden,” Paavola wrote in court papers.

If Owens does not make a choice, he would be sent to the electric chair by law and he does not want to die that way, Paavola wrote.

Lawyers for the state asked the South Carolina Supreme Court to rule if Owens's lawyer can make that decision for him.

Friday's ruling from the state Supreme Court also set this order for the next five executions of inmates out of appeals.

— Richard Moore, 59, convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in Spartanburg in 1999.

— Marion Bowman, 44, convicted of killing an Orangeburg woman and setting her body on fire because she owed him money in 2001.

— Brad Sigmon, 66, convicted of beating to death his estranged girlfriend’s parents with a baseball bat in Greenville County in 2001.

— Mikal Mahdi, 41, convicted of shooting an off-duty police officer at his home in Calhoun County and setting his body on fire in 2004.

— Steven Bixby, 57, convicted of killing two police officers in Abbeville responding after he threatened workers who planned to use some of the state's right-of-way on his parents' land to widen a highway in 2003.

South Carolina currently has 32 inmates on its death row.