death penalty

A South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed in just over three weeks is asking a federal judge to take away the power of granting clemency from the governor who is a former state attorney general and place it with a parole board.

Freddie Eugene Owens is scheduled to be executed Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, by lethal injection. Owens' execution will be South Carolina's first since 2011.

A South Carolina inmate scheduled to be executed Friday is asking Gov. Henry McMaster to spare his life, something no governor in the state has done since the death penalty was restarted nearly 50 years ago.

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for September 17, 2024: two controversial figures will be speaking at USC Wednesday evening; the first S.C. execution in 13 years is set to take place Friday; we catch up with the AP’s Meg Kinnard and communications consultant Rob Godfrey about the importance of presidential debates and Taylor Swift; and more!

On this episode of the South Carolina Lede for August 31, 2024: an update on the death penalty’s return to South Carolina with SC Public Radio reporter Maayan Schechter and Jeffrey Collins with the Associated Press; part two Scott Morgan’s rapid rehousing program in Rock Hill; we begin our weekly installment of campaign trail news; and more!

SC Public Radio's Maayan Schechter talks with Associated Press' Jeffrey Collins about the scheduled execution of Freddie Eugene Owens, convicted of killing a Greenville store clerk in 1997. Owens is scheduled to be the first person executed in the state since 2011.

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the state's death penalty, which now includes a firing squad as well as lethal injection and the electric chair, is legal.

Lawyers for four death row inmates who are out of appeals are expected to argue to the South Carolina Supreme Court that the state’s old electric chair and new firing squad are cruel and unusual punishments.

South Carolina's highest court apparently is not ready to allow the state to restart executions after more than 12 years until they hear more arguments about newly obtained lethal injection drugs as well as a recently added firing squad and the old electric chair.

The state is poised to carry out its first execution in more than a decade after the Department of Corrections secured the drug pentobarbital.