Inmate awaiting execution says South Carolina didn’t share enough about lethal injection drug

[Pelican Press 0]

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Inmate awaiting ********** says South Carolina didn’t share enough about lethal injection *****

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Lawyers for the South Carolina inmate scheduled to be put to ****** later this month said Tuesday state prison officials didn’t provide enough information

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to decide whether he wants to **** by lethal injection.

Freddie Owens’ attorneys want prison administrators to provide the actual report from state scientists who tested the sedative

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. The state provided just a summary that said the ***** is stable, pure and — based on similar methods in other jurisdictions — potent enough to *****.

Attorneys for the state have argued a

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passed in 2023 keeps many details about the ***** private because they could be used to track the compounding pharmacy that made it.

South Carolina hasn’t put an inmate to ******

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in part because the state struggled to get a company to sell or make the drugs needed for a lethal injection out of ***** of being publicly identified.

How much information should be released to a condemned inmate is one of several pending legal issues before the South Carolina Supreme Court as Owens’ ********** date nears. He is scheduled to be put to ****** Sept. 20 for ********* a Greenville convenience store clerk in the head during a 1997 robbery.

His lawyers last week

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, saying Owens’ co-defendant lied about having no plea deal and possibly facing the ****** penalty in exchange for his testimony. Steven Golden ended up with a 28-year sentence in a case where no evidence was presented about who fired the fatal shot beyond Golden’s testimony that Owens ******* the clerk because she struggled to open the store’s safe.

Owens’ attorneys want more time to argue he deserves a new trial because of new evidence, including a juror saying they were able to see a stun belt Owens had to wear to assure good behavior during his trial.

The

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ruled Tuesday that Owens can allow his lawyer to decide the method of **********. Owens said physically signing the form would be like ******** and a sin in his ******* ****** because he would take an active role in his own ******.

Owens, 46, faces a Friday deadline to let prison officials know if he chooses to **** by lethal injection, electrocution or the new

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. If he doesn’t choose he would go to the

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.

That decision can’t be fairly made without more information about the lethal injection *****, part of a new one-***** protocol the state is using, Owens’ attorney Gerald King Jr. wrote in court papers.

Instead, King wants to see the full report from the State Law Enforcement Division laboratory that tested the pentobarbital. He said the technicians’ names can be redacted under the shield law.

Included in court papers was a sworn statement from a University of South Carolina pharmacy professor saying the details provided by prison officials weren’t enough to make an informed decision on whether the lethal injection ***** was pure, stable and potent enough to carry out the **********.

“The affidavit does not specify the test methods used, the testing procedures followed, or the actual results obtained from those tests,” Dr. Michaela Almgren wrote in a sworn statement.

The report also said Owens wasn’t provided with the date the drugs were tested or the “beyond use date” when a compounded ***** becomes unstable. An unstable ***** could cause intense pain when injected, damage blood vessels or not be strong enough to ***** the inmate, Almgren wrote.

The state didn’t say how the drugs, which are sensitive to temperature, light and moisture, would be stored, Almgren said.

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#Inmate #awaiting #********** #South #Carolina #didnt #share #lethal #injection #*****

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