SC Supreme Court sets 35 days minimum between executions, identifies who will be executed next (original) (raw)

A photo of the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ renovated capital punishment facility as seen from the witness room at the agency’s Broad River Road complex in Columbia, S.C. The firing squad chair is shown on the left, uncovered. The covered chair is the electric chair, which does not move.Provided by the S.C. Department of Corrections

The S.C. Supreme Court on Friday ruled that at least 35 days should pass between executions of condemned prisoners and set the order in which the next five death row inmates should be executed.

“A reasonable interval in the issuance of death notices is warranted,” the high court ruled in a two-page order signed by all five justices.

After death row inmate Freddie Owens is executed Sept. 20, the order set by the justices or the next five death row inmates whose appeals have run out is:

1. Richard Moore, 59, from Spartanburg County. Sentenced to death for killing store clerk James Mahoney during an armed robbery in 1999.

2. Marion Bowman Jr., 44, from Dorchester County. Sentenced for fatally shooting an acquaintance, Kandee Martin, in 2001.

3. Brad Sigmon, 66, from Greenville County. Sentenced in 2002 for beating his estranged girlfriend’s parents, Gladys and David Larke, to death in 2001 with a baseball bat.

4. Mikahl Mahdi, 41, from Calhoun County. Sentenced to death for killing Orangeburg County public safety officer Capt. James Myers in 2004.

5. Steven Bixby, 57, from Abbeville County. Sentenced for killing two law enforcement officers, Abbeville County sheriff’s deputy Danny Wilson and State magistrate’s constable Donnie Ouzts in 2003 in a property dispute Bixby’s family had with the S.C. Department of Transportation.

Owens, 46, was sen­tenced to death for the 1997 killing of Irene Graves, a con­ve­nience store clerk in Greenville, . He was lat­er con­vict­ed in the mur­der of a cell­mate, Christopher Lee.

In decreeing that 35 days should be the minimum interval between executions, the justices rejected a bid by defense lawyers to have a minimum interval of 13 weeks between executions.

Justices wrote they could alter the 35-day interval “should circumstances warrant.”

The approximately one-every-five-weeks pace likely means that South Carolina could have regular executions for the next six or seven months. The state had its last execution in 2011 and has only executed 19 men since 2000.

Executions will take place in the Department of Corrections Broad River Road prison complex just outside Columbia.

Under a S.C. Supreme Court decision this summer, three methods of execution are constitutionally permitted. Inmates have their choice of electrocution, lethal injection or firing squad. Owens has said he wants his lawyers to choose his method of execution.

Years ago, South Carolina’s executions were carried out in the dead of night. Owens will be put to death at 6 p.m. on Sept. 20, according to the Department of Corrections.

This story was originally published August 30, 2024, 12:37 PM.

John Monk has covered courts, crime, politics, public corruption, the environment and other issues in the Carolinas for more than 40 years. A U.S. Army veteran who covered the 1989 American invasion of Panama, Monk is a former Washington correspondent for The Charlotte Observer. He has covered numerous death penalty trials, including those of the Charleston church killer, Dylann Roof, serial killer Pee Wee Gaskins and child killer Tim Jones. Monk’s hobbies include hiking, books, languages, music and a lot of other things.