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Some Questionable Death Row Executions in the Queue [1]

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Date: 2024-09-19  

Tomorrow, September 20, South Carolina is scheduled to end its 13-year hiatus on executions with the lethal injection of one Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, previously known as Freddie Eugene Owens, for the murder of a 41-year-old woman in a convenience store robbery back in 1997 when he was only 18. USA Today and The Guardian (among other sources) have in-depth looks at the circumstances surrounding this case.

Perhaps the most egregious thing to note is that the co-defendant in this case who agreed to testify against Freddie as the triggerman in exchange for being spared the death penalty himself is now claiming that Freddy wasn’t even there with him on the night of the robbery/murder, but a different person altogether (who he still refuses to identify for fear of what his “associates” might do to him), and he was pressured into testifying against Freddy by the prosecutors in exchange for leniency since they had no forensic evidence linking Freddy to the crime.

OTOH, Freddy isn’t exactly the picture of innocence either (refer to the links for his absolutely hellish childhood):

As for Owens, he said his conviction led him to kill his cellmate while awaiting sentencing, telling officials: “I really did it because I was wrongly convicted of murder.”

Since the SCSC has already rejected his final appeal, it looks like this execution will proceed as scheduled barring an unexpected reprieve from Governor McMaster. As an aside, the reason SC hasn’t executed anyone in the past 13 years is that they ran out of the drugs needed to carry out lethal injections when the major pharmaceutical companies stopped providing them — so it remains to be seen just how well this alternative supply has been vetted.

More disturbing is the case of Missouri death row inmate Marcellus Williams who is scheduled to die on September 24. As detailed by CNN, Williams was convicted of the stabbing murder of Felicia Gayle in her home in 1998, and in a last-ditch appeal to SCOTUS:

In court documents, lawyers for Williams note former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens previously halted Williams’ execution indefinitely and formed a board to investigate his case and determine whether he should be granted clemency. “The Board investigated Williams’ case for the next six years — until Governor Michael Parson abruptly terminated the process,” the lawyers write. When Parson took office, he dissolved the board and revoked Williams’ stay of execution, the petition notes. Parson’s decision denied Williams his right to due process, Williams’ lawyers say. “The Governor’s actions have violated Williams’ constitutional rights and created an exceptionally urgent need for the Court’s attention,” the court documents state. The St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney said earlier this year that there were constitutional errors in Williams’ original criminal trial, the court documents state, citing issues including the removal of at least one prospective Black juror due to race. “These would be key issues for the Board of Inquiry’s consideration in whether to recommend clemency instead of execution — if the Governor had not wrongly dissolved the Board,” the documents state.

So despite the former prosecutors and the previous governor thinking Williams’ case at least deserved a second look, the current governor is so gung-ho in his lust to carry out state-sanctioned executions he’s willing to run roughshod over the concept of due process and obviously doesn’t care whether he was guilty or not as long as he was “lawfully” convicted.

But even the Missouri case pales in comparison to what is taking place in Texas. As detailed in The Guardian, Texas is not only scheduled to execute an obviously innocent man next month, but it’s for a “crime” that never took place (based on the now long discredited junk science hypothesis of “shaken baby syndrome” and the fact that the accused is on the autism spectrum). What is truly remarkable is that this case has attracted an enormous amount of cross-party support for a clemency petition among Texas legislators, scientists, and even the former prosecutors of the case:

The clemency petition argues that Roberson’s conviction was based on three serious mistakes. When Nikki [Robertson’s 2-year-old daughter] was rushed to hospital in February 2002 in a comatose state, medical personnel concluded that she had been violently shaken without looking at her actual medical record. On the back of that initial error, law enforcement officials and doctors failed to investigate further. As a result, they missed critical symptoms, including that the girl was ill with a fever of 104.5F (40.3C) shortly before she fell unconscious, had undiagnosed pneumonia, and had been given medical drugs that have since been deemed life-threatening for children – all of which could explain her dire state. The third mistake, the petition argues, is that detectives and medical staff who came into contact with Roberson, unaware that he was autistic, interpreted his non-expressive demeanor as the posture of a callous killer and not as a product of his condition. Brian Wharton, the lead detective in the case who testified against Roberson at trial, now believes that the entire prosecution that he spearheaded was based on a fallacy. Last year he told the Guardian: “There was no crime scene, no forensic evidence. It was just three words: shaken baby syndrome. Without them, he would be a free man today.”

Last week the Texas court of criminal appeals denied Robertson’s appeal, because Texas, so the clemency petition to Governor Abbot is now his last chance to avoid being executed for a crime that never happened.

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