COLUMBIA — Anti-death penalty activists delivered a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to Gov. Henry McMaster Thursday asking him to grant Freddie Owens clemency.
McMaster has not given any indication he will grant clemency, a decision he says will be announced on the day of the execution. “That decision is one to be made at that time and announced at that time and that’s what I’ll do,” McMaster said last week.
On Wednesday, Owens’ attorneys filed an emergency motion for the state’s Supreme Court to reconsider its original denial to stay Owens’ execution, scheduled for Friday evening. Defense attorneys submitted an affidavit from Owens’ co-defendant Steven Golden alleging Owens was not the person to shoot Irene Graves in 1997 ― the crime Owens was convicted of that landed him on death row…