A key witness who helped put Freddie Owens on loss of life row now says he lied to avoid wasting his personal life — coming ahead simply days earlier than Owens’ execution, which continues to be set for Friday.
Steven Golden — Owens’ one-time pal and co-defendant — filed a sworn assertion Wednesday saying he lied throughout his testimony and that Owens wasn’t with him at a South Carolina comfort retailer in 1997 when Irene Graves was killed in a botched theft.
Golden mentioned he had a secret cope with prosecutors and lied about his then-pal’s guilt to assist save himself from the loss of life chamber.
“I’m coming ahead now as a result of I do know Freddie’s execution date is September 20 and I don’t need Freddie to be executed for one thing he didn’t do,” he wrote. “This has weighed closely on my thoughts and I need to have a transparent conscience.”
Nevertheless, the South Carolina Supreme Court docket dominated Thursday that the surprising last-minute confession was not sufficient to halt the execution nonetheless scheduled for six p.m. Friday.
Owens’ attorneys condemned the choice to press on with the execution, the state’s first in 13 years.
“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a person for against the law he didn’t commit,” mentioned certainly one of his attorneys, Gerald “Bo” King. “We are going to proceed to advocate for Mr. Owens.”
In his assertion, Golden mentioned he blamed Owens as a result of he was excessive on cocaine — and police then put strain on him by claiming they already knew the 2 have been collectively and that Owens was speaking. Golden additionally mentioned he feared the actual killer, whom he didn’t establish
“I believed the actual shooter or his associates would possibly kill me if I named him to police. I’m nonetheless afraid of that. However Freddie was not there,” Golden wrote in his second sworn assertion.
Golden mentioned he testified at Owens’ trial as a result of prosecutors promised to contemplate his testimony in his favor as he pleaded responsible to a lesser cost of voluntary manslaughter. He was finally sentenced to twenty-eight years in jail, courtroom data present.
Nevertheless, prosecutors famous that Golden wasn’t the one one to place Owens on the scene of the crime, and others — together with Owens’ then-girlfriend — testified that he had bragged about killing Graves.
They efficiently argued that Golden’s change of story shouldn’t be sufficient to cease the execution as a result of he confessed to mendacity beneath oath, exhibiting his modified assertion shouldn’t be trusted.
“There isn’t any indication that Golden will testify; there isn’t any reasoning to why Owens would admit the taking pictures (of) Ms. Graves to officers, his girlfriend, and his mom if he was not the shooter as now claimed,” the state Lawyer Basic’s Workplace wrote in courtroom papers.
“Owens has had ample alternative to litigate claims relating to his conviction and sentence. He’s due no extra,” the AG’s Workplace wrote in a courtroom submitting.
Owens has just one extra avenue to attempt to save his life. In South Carolina, the governor has the lone skill to grant clemency and cut back a loss of life sentence to life in jail.
Nevertheless, no governor has completed that within the state’s 43 executions because the loss of life penalty was restarted within the US in 1976.
Gov. Henry McMaster has mentioned he’ll comply with longtime custom and never announce his determination till jail officers make a name from the loss of life chamber minutes earlier than the execution.
Till now, South Carolina’s executions have been postponed since 2011 over struggles to get the deadly injection drug. The loss of life chamber was reopened after lawmakers voted final yr to maintain the provider of the sedative pentobarbital secret and the state Supreme Court docket dominated that the electrical chair and firing squad additionally have been authorized execution strategies.
The state has used three medication for executions prior to now, however moved to at least one dose of pentobarbital — much like the federal authorities’s execution technique — to make acquiring it simpler.
With Submit wires