A death row inmate, who wrote a series of disturbing letters to his lover from behind bars, said just one word before he was put to death by lethal injection last night.
Freddie Eugene Owens was executed on Friday (20 September) at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, South Carolina, for the 1997 murder of convenience store clerk Irene Grainger Graves.
It makes him the first inmate to face the ultimate punishment in the state after more than a decade, with the last execution taking place 13 years ago.
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Owens' last meal consisted of a well-done ribeye steak, two cheeseburgers, six chicken wings, French fries, a piece of apple pie and two strawberry sodas, a South Carolina Department of Corrections spokesperson said.
His execution - which his co-defendant tried to halt with a last minute sworn statement - began at 6:35pm local time and he was pronounced dead 20 minutes later.
Before the 46-year-old was put to death, several unsettling letters he had penned to a woman he was in love with were shared.
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He is believed to have to have wrote them to his then-girlfriend in the late 90s.
The correspondence, obtained by USA Today, showed Owens telling a woman named 'Aisha' that 'not a day goes by' without him thinking of her.
In one letter sent in 1997 where he professed his love for her, he also expressed regret over his actions and voiced his anger about prosecutors who dismissed a sworn statement insisting he is innocent.
In another, Owens mood had taken a turn, as he demanded Aisha answers his questions and told her to 'quit bull sh**ting with his emotions'.
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"I hate to believe this but I heard you signed statements against me," he wrote. "I rather you f**k my brother, leave me or kill me. When I get out, and that's a fact, I have no words for those who betrayed me, just anger."
A letter sent in March 1998 also read: "Aisha, you know the things I’ve done, you know what I’m capable of doing, so why do you tend to play these games with me?"
On Wednesday (18 September), Owens' co-defendant in the robbery that resulted in Graves death signed a sworn statement which insisted that the death row inmate did not shoot the victim and was not even at the scene of the crime.
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Steven Golden told the South Carolina Supreme Court that he was 'scared that he would get the death penalty if he didn't make a statement' saying that Owens was present for the fatal incident on 1 November, 1997.
But it did not sway the court and the execution went ahead.
Graves, 41, was working an overnight shift at a convenience store in Greenville when she was shot and killed during a robbery after reportedly being unable to open the safe.
Owens was just 19 when the single mother-of-three was killed, and he was sentenced to death two years later after being convicted of murder, armed robbery and criminal conspiracy.
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WHNS also reported that the man confessed to killing a cellmate in 1999, while awaiting sentencing following the conviction.
The South Carolina Supreme Court refused to halt his execution despite new pleas from people protesting Owens’ innocence, and the lethal injection was administered to him on Friday evening.
He uttered just one word before he took his last breaths, simply saying 'bye' after speaking to his attorney.
His attorney Gerald 'Bo' King described his execution as a 'tragedy'.
"Mr. Owens’s childhood was marked by suffering on a scale that is hard to comprehend," he told USA Today.
"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."
Olivia Burke