South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn't find lethal injection drugs. Marion Bowman Jr.'s execution is scheduled for 6pm Friday at a Columbia prison, reports the AP. Bowman, 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting death of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of a car. His lawyers said he was convicted on the word of several friends and relatives who received deals or had charges dropped in exchange for their testimony. Bowman, who has been on death row more than half his life, was offered a plea deal for a life sentence but went to trial because he said he was not guilty.
Friday's execution will follow the state lifting a 13-year pause caused in part because state officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The General Assembly passed a shield law and prison officials were able to find a compounding pharmacy willing to make the pentobarbital if its identity wasn't made public. Bowman is not asking Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency. His lawyer, Lindsey Vann, said Bowman didn't want to spend more decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. "After more than two decades of battling a broken system that has failed him at every turn, Marion's decision is a powerful refusal to legitimize an unjust process that has already stolen so much of his life," Vann said. Bowman is Black, like the other two inmates executed since the pause ended.
One other concern raised by Bowman's lawyers is his weight. An anesthesiologist said he fears South Carolina's secret lethal injection protocols don't take into account that Bowman is listed as 389 pounds. It can be difficult to properly get an IV into a blood vessel and determine the dose of the drugs needed in people with obesity. The state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions in July. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed Nov. 1. The court will allow an execution every five weeks until the other three inmates who have run out of appeals are put to death.
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