In the week following September 20th, the United States saw the most executions on death row over the course of a week in over two decades. The executions of five inmates occurred in five different states, marking an unusually high concentration of sentencing over the course of the week, especially considering the nation’s long-term decline in capital punishment. These death row cases have not only gained attention due to their temporal proximity, but also because a few of them had evidence that could have possibly halted the execution.
South Carolina
The first execution was of Freddie Owens. Now 46 years old, Owen was 19 when he committed murder during an armed robbery with accomplice Steve Golden. He was arrested for the murder of Irene Graves, a single mother of three. While in jail awaiting trial, he also allegedly murdered his cellmate. Owens waited on death row for 27 years before being given the lethal injection that ended his life.
The reason for his nearly three-decade-long delay was that prison officials were unable to obtain the drug needed for this type of execution, making his death the first execution in South Carolina in 13 years. Recently, in an attempt to halt the execution, his lawyers directed the court to an affidavit signed by Golden stating that Owens was innocent. The courts denied this, stating that it went against Golden’s statements under oath in the original trial.
Missouri
Four days after Freddie Owen’s execution, Marcellus Williams was executed in Missouri in what was perhaps the most reported case of the week. In 2001, Williams was convicted of killing Felicia Gayle, a local news reporter. Since then, multiple efforts have been made to spare his life, with many raising questions about his trial. Reports of a biased jury selection and mishandling of evidence called the prosecution into question, and both the prosecution and the victim’s family asked for the sentence to be changed to life without parole.
During his case, Williams’s friend and girlfriend testified against him stating they saw him with some of Gayle’s belongings, but the defense attempted to discredit this by stating that they both simply wanted the $10,000 reward. Further, because of the mishandling of evidence, DNA found on the murder weapon did not match Williams, instead matching that of the crime scene technicians. This case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which declined to block the execution, resulting in Williams’s execution by lethal injection.
Texas
Just an hour later, Texas executed Travis Mullis, a man convicted in 2008 for crimes against his three-month old son, which eventually led to the child’s death. Notably, Mullis described his execution as assisted suicide. He took the necessary legal proceedings to expedite his execution, and he described remorse for his actions during his final moments. His lawyer claims that Texas put to death a changed man, and the man who was given the injection is not the man that was sentenced. He also claimed that Mullis had serious unresolved mental health issues. The Supreme Court, although ruling in 1986 that the execution of the “insane” is a violation of the Eighth Amendment, has made no ruling about putting to death those that are mentally ill but understand the consequences of their actions.
Alabama
Two days later, Alan Eugene Miller was executed for the murder of three men in back-to-back workplace shootings. After becoming the first state to use nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method earlier this year, Alabama used it a second time on Miller. This method has been called into question, citing the suffering the inmate faces, often for minutes, before succumbing to death.
Originally, in 2022, Miller requested to be executed by nitrogen hypoxia, but the state decided it was unable to do so. The Alabama government attempted to execute him by lethal injection but was unsuccessful in finding a vein, leading them to agree to only execute him by his requested method. In 2024, however, when Alabama used the method for the first time on Kenneth Smith, Smith appeared to have suffered during his execution. This resulted in Miller wanting to change his execution method, citing the Eighth Amendment, but he was denied. Miller also appeared to have suffered for a couple minutes before passing.
Oklahoma
That same day, Emmanuel Littlejohn was executed for his role in a 1992 armed robbery, during which he allegedly fired the shot that killed a convenience store owner. Littlejohn’s lawyers attempted to appeal for clemency and spare his life, which a motion of which the board voted 3-2 in favor. However, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt denied this motion, stating that “a jury found him guilty and sentenced him to death. As a law-and-order governor, I have a hard time unilaterally overturning that decision.” Littlejohn’s attorneys argued that if the trial was in 2024, he would not have been sentenced to death for an armed robbery murder, but this argument did not hold in court, and Littlejohn received a lethal injection.
The execution of Littlejohn marked the 1,600th death row execution since the reinstatement of the death penalty by the Supreme Court in 1976 in Gregg v. Georgia. Although the Supreme Court seems hesitant to change the current laws, this topic will continue to be on the forefront of activist pursuits in the years to come.
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