A key witness who helped put Freddie Owens on demise row now says he lied to save lots of his personal life — coming ahead simply days earlier than Owens’ execution, which continues to be set for Friday.
Steven Golden — Owens’ one-time buddy 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 demise 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 wish to have a transparent conscience.”
Nonetheless, the South Carolina Supreme Courtroom dominated Thursday that the stunning last-minute confession was not sufficient to halt the execution nonetheless scheduled for six p.m. Friday.
Owens’ legal professionals 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 a criminal offense he didn’t commit,” mentioned considered 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 assumed 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.
Nonetheless, 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, displaying his modified assertion shouldn’t be trusted.
“There isn’t a indication that Golden will testify; there isn’t a reasoning to why Owens would admit the capturing (of) Ms. Graves to officers, his girlfriend, and his mom if he was not the shooter as now claimed,” the state Lawyer Normal’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 demise sentence to life in jail.
Nonetheless, no governor has executed that within the state’s 43 executions because the demise 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 demise 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 demise chamber was reopened after lawmakers voted final 12 months to maintain the provider of the sedative pentobarbital secret and the state Supreme Courtroom dominated that the electrical chair and firing squad additionally have been authorized execution strategies.
The state has used three medicine for executions previously, however moved to at least one dose of pentobarbital — just like the federal authorities’s execution technique — to make acquiring it simpler.
With Publish wires
Supply hyperlink