Freddie Eugene Owens | |
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Born | South Carolina, U.S. | March 18, 1978
Died | September 20, 2024 Broad River Correctional Institution, South Carolina, U.S. | (aged 46)
Cause of death | Execution by lethal injection |
Conviction(s) |
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Criminal penalty |
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Details | |
Victims |
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Date | February 16, 1999 |
Location(s) | Greenville County, South Carolina |
Freddie Eugene Owens (March 18, 1978 – September 20, 2024), alias Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, was an American man convicted and executed in South Carolina for the 1997 killing of Irene Grainger Graves, a convenience store clerk. Owens was 19 when he and an 18-year-old accomplice shot and killed Graves during a robbery in November 1997.
While the accomplice pleaded guilty and was later jailed for voluntary manslaughter, Owens was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death in 1999. The death sentence was overturned twice before re-sentencing trials restored the death penalty for Owens, which was subsequently upheld by the higher courts. Owens was also charged with murdering Christopher Bryan Lee, a fellow prisoner, in 1999.
Owens was executed on September 20, 2024. He was the first person in South Carolina to be executed after the state's 13-year moratorium on executions.[1]