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Death Penalty

Lawyer chooses lethal injection for inmate who didn’t want to make decision

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 10, 2024, 8:50 am CDT

A South Carolina lawyer has picked lethal injection as the execution method for a client who didn’t want to make the decision because of religious qualms.

Lawyer Emily Paavola of Columbia, South Carolina, said in a statement she made the best decision that she thought was possible on behalf of her client, Freddie Owens, given the information available to her, Law.com reports.

Owens didn’t want to make the decision because he considers the choice to be tantamount to suicide, which his Muslim religion considers a sin, according to the Associated Press.

If Paavola had not made the choice, Owens would be executed by the state’s default method, the electric chair. A third option is a firing squad.

Owens’ execution for the 1997 shooting death of a store clerk is scheduled for Sept. 20. In the past, South Carolina has used a three-drug combination in executions but switched to just one drug, pentobarbital, because it was easier to obtain.

In a statement that Paavola gave to the AP and Law.com, she said she made the decision “in light of the information currently available to me.” She had sought more information from the state about testing and storage of the drug to ensure that it would not cause her client unbearable pain or agony.

But the South Carolina Supreme Court ruled last week that prison officials had released sufficient details, according to Law.com, the AP and the Post and Courier.

See also:

South Carolina’s execution menu is not cruel and unusual, state supreme court says