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US News

Key witness who put Freddie Owens on death row admits he lied — but execution still happening

By
Megan Palin
Published Sep. 20, 2024, 2:49 p.m. ET

A key witness who helped put Freddie Owens on death row now says he lied to save his own life — coming forward just days before Owens’ execution, which is still set for Friday.

Steven Golden — Owens’ one-time friend and co-defendant — filed a sworn statement Wednesday saying he lied during his testimony and that Owens wasn’t with him at a South Carolina convenience store in 1997 when Irene Graves was killed in a botched robbery.

Golden said he had a secret deal with prosecutors and lied about his then-pal’s guilt to help save himself from the death chamber.

Freddie Owens said in court papers that deciding the execution method would be taking an active role in his own death, and his Muslim faith teaches him that suicide is a sin.
Freddie Owens said in court papers that deciding the execution method would be taking an active role in his own death, and his Muslim faith teaches him that suicide is a sin. AP

“I’m coming forward now because I know Freddie’s execution date is September 20 and I don’t want Freddie to be executed for something he didn’t do,” he wrote. “This has weighed heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience.”

However, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the shocking last-minute confession was not enough to halt the execution still scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday.

Owens’ lawyers condemned the decision to press on with the execution, the state’s first in 13 years.

“South Carolina is on the verge of executing a man for a crime he did not commit,” said one of his attorneys, Gerald “Bo” King. “We will continue to advocate for Mr. Owens.”

In his statement, Golden said he blamed Owens because he was high on cocaine — and police then put pressure on him by claiming they already knew the two were together and that Owens was talking.

Golden also said he feared the real killer, whom he did not identify

“I thought the real shooter or his associates might kill me if I named him to police. I am still afraid of that. But Freddie was not there,” Golden wrote in his second sworn statement.

Owens’ death is now set for Sept. 20, as South Carolina uses a new lethal injection procedure after a 13-year pause in executions.
Owens’ death is now set for Sept. 20, as South Carolina uses a new lethal injection procedure after a 13-year pause in executions. AP

Golden said he testified at Owens’ trial because prosecutors promised to consider his testimony in his favor as he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter. He was eventually sentenced to 28 years in prison, court records show.

However, prosecutors noted that Golden wasn’t the only one to put Owens at the scene of the crime, and others — including Owens’ then-girlfriend — testified that he had bragged about killing Graves.

They successfully argued that Golden’s change of story shouldn’t be enough to stop the execution because he confessed to lying under oath, showing his changed statement should not be trusted.

“There is no indication that Golden will testify; there is no reasoning to why Owens would admit the shooting (of) Ms. Graves to officers, his girlfriend, and his mother if he was not the shooter as now claimed,” the state Attorney General’s Office wrote in court papers.

“Owens has had ample opportunity to litigate claims regarding his conviction and sentence. He is due no more,” the AG’s Office wrote in a court filing.

Owens has only one more avenue to try to save his life. In South Carolina, the governor has the lone ability to grant clemency and reduce a death sentence to life in prison.

However, no governor has done that in the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the US in 1976.

Gov. Henry McMaster has said he will follow longtime tradition and not announce his decision until prison officials make a call from the death chamber minutes before the execution.

Until now, South Carolina’s executions have been postponed since 2011 over struggles to get the lethal injection drug. The death chamber was reopened after lawmakers voted last year to keep the supplier of the sedative pentobarbital secret and the state Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair and firing squad also were legal execution methods.

The state has used three drugs for executions in the past, but moved to one dose of pentobarbital — similar to the federal government’s execution method — to make obtaining it easier.

With Post wires