Last night, attorneys for Freddie Eugene Owens (aka Khalil-Divine Black Sun-Allah) filed a new petition with the South Carolina Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus and stay of execution, in addition to the Stay motion filed last week, seeking to set aside his sentence of death based on constitutional violations that include trial errors and excessive sentencing.
Mr. Owens was convicted and sentenced to death for the tragic murder of Irene Graves during a convenience store robbery in 1997. As the petition details, Mr. Owens was just 19 years old at the time of the crime and suffers from organic brain damage. His jury was told it could convict him just for being present at the scene, regardless of whether he or his codefendant shot Ms. Graves. We are not aware of a single execution in the modern history of the state in which a person who did not kill or intend to kill was executed.
Mr. Owens maintains his innocence.
“Mr. Owens was denied his constitutional rights to a fair trial by these errors, which were also the legal basis for his death sentence. No court has reviewed these claims before. Allowing Mr. Owens’s execution to proceed when his conviction and sentence were so compromised is unacceptable under the Constitution and the rule of law,” said Gerald “Bo” King, Chief of the Capital Habeas Unit for the Fourth Circuit in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of North Carolina.
Mr. Owens’s lawyers also urge that his death sentence be stayed because it fails the comparative proportionality review directed by South Carolina law, which requires the Supreme Court to compare Mr. Owens’s sentence in relation to similar cases.
“Mr. Owens’s sentence of death is excessive when compared to more egregious cases that resulted in a life sentence or less,” said King, “especially in light of his youth, his organic brain damage, and remaining doubts about his guilt.”
Yesterday’s filing follows on the heels of last week’s petition and stay motion presenting new evidence of the state’s undisclosed deal with Mr. Owens’s codefendant to spare him the death penalty in exchange for his testimony implicating Mr. Owens.
This is the first of six executions anticipated in the next six months.
The full petition can be viewed here. The earlier stay motion and exhibits can be viewed here.
