South Carolina executed Freddie Eugene Owens in the shooting death of a convenience store clerk on Friday as his mother begged state officials to reconsider, saying they were committing a “grave injustice” in light of a new sworn statement from a key witness in the case.
Owens , 46, was executed by lethal injection at the Broad Broad River Correctional Institute in Columbia, becoming the first inmate to be put to death by the state in more than a decade and the 14th in the nation this year. His execution began at 6:35 p.m. ET and he was pronounced dead 20 minutes later at 6:55 p.m.
A South Carolina jury found Owens guilty of murdering Irene Grainger Graves, 41, a single mother of three whose son described her as a hard-working and fun mom in an interview with USA TODAY this week …