Freddie Eugene Owens was executed by the State of South Carolina on September 20, despite lingering doubts about his guilt and a confession from co-defendant Steven Golden, who stated that Owens was not present at the crime scene, contradicting a decades-old narrative.
According to USA Today, Owens was found guilty by a jury of the murder of Irene Grainger Graves, a 41-year-old single mother of three, at a convenience store in 1997. Graves’ son, Arte Graves, told the outlet that if Golden’s sworn statement is true, that it came too late to save Owens.
“If it was true, I feel he should’ve said something earlier, that’s something that person will have to deal with their conscience,” Graves said.
Owens’ attorney, Gerald “Bo” King said in a statement that Owens’ death is a tragedy.
“Freddie Owens did not kill Ms. Graves. His death tonight is a tragedy,” King told USA Today. “Mr. Owens’s childhood was marked by suffering on a scale that is hard to comprehend. He spent his adulthood in prison for a crime that he did not commit. The legal errors, hidden deals, and false evidence that made tonight possible should shame us all.”
In Golden’s statement, similar to many stories involving innocent people who are later exonerated, the police figure prominently in why he initially said that Owens was with him during the robbery that led to the murder of Graves.
In a statement submitted to police, Golden said that he “substituted Freddie for the person who was really with me in the Speedway that night.”
Golden continued, “I did that because I knew that’s what the police wanted me to say, and also because I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to the police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was actually not there.”
Despite Golden’s statement, both the South Carolina Supreme Court and South Carolina’s Republican Governor Henry McMaster declined to stay the execution of Owens. The former ruled on Sept. 19 that Golden’s new statement doesn’t trump confessions he previously made to a girlfriend, his mother, and two police officers.
Dora Mason, Owens’ mother, expressed that she believed the justice system failed not only her son, but the victim and her family.
“Today, I bear witness to the State’s unwillingness to consider new evidence, its refusal to acknowledge the possibility of error,” Mason told Greenville News. “Freddie is more than his conviction; he is a human being, a son, a brother, and a friend. He deserves compassion, understanding, and a fair chance at justice. Instead, the system has failed him and the victim at every turn.”
Mason, who delivered her statement hours before her son was set to be executed, also urged people in South Carolina to think more broadly about the high stakes of the death penalty
.Mason wanted the citizens of South Carolina to consider “the fallibility of our justice system and the irreversible nature of capital punishment…I implore you to question the morality of taking a life in the name of justice, especially when doubt exists.”
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