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submitted 12 hours ago by girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to c/news@lemmy.world

Just days before inmate Freddie Owens is set to die by lethal injection in South Carolina, the friend whose testimony helped send Owens to prison is saying he lied to save himself from the death chamber.

Owens is set to die at 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison for the killing of a Greenville convenience store clerk in 1997.

But Owens’ lawyers on Wednesday filed a sworn statement from his co-defendant Steven Golden late Wednesday to try to stop South Carolina from carrying out its first execution in more than a decade.

Prosecutors reiterated that several other witnesses testified that Owens told them he pulled the trigger. And the state Supreme Court refused to stop Owens’ execution last week after Golden, in a sworn statement, said that he had a secret deal with prosecutors that he never told the jury about.

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[-] some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 3 hours ago

Don't worry everybody. It's South Carolina, so there's no chance they won't execute him. Gdi.

[-] Maeve@kbin.earth 52 points 8 hours ago

That the United States holds ourselves a bastion of democracy and human rights is absolutely absurd. The death penalty shouldn't exist; This is quite possibly murder.

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[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 92 points 12 hours ago

And the state Supreme Court refused to stop Owens’ execution

When the blind justice has a hard-on for killing people...

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 11 points 11 hours ago

First execution in nearly 10 years.

[-] DmMacniel@feddit.org 33 points 11 hours ago

still bloodthirsty that they refuse that execution even though new information have come to light.

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[-] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 4 points 8 hours ago

In South Carolina? First on-the-books in nearly 10 years.

[-] superkret@feddit.org 60 points 12 hours ago

FFS if you insist on keeping this barbaric custom, at least limit it to cases that are 100% sure.

[-] tlou3please@lemmy.world 39 points 11 hours ago

That's kinda what it comes down to for me though. Can you EVER be 100% sure? Even if you're 99.5% sure, odds are sooner or later you'll execute someone who was innocent. And in my opinion that one single lost innocent life means the practice is unjustifiable.

I wonder how many people who disagree with me are pro life.

[-] Zexks@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

Yes. You absolutely can be. Ten-fifteens-twenty different angles of video evidence. 30+ eye witnesses. There’s a ones a point of insurmountable evidence to the point. It can be done.

[-] tlou3please@lemmy.world 1 points 5 hours ago

Sure, you've invented a fictional scenario that has never happened but appears quite certain. But even then there are external factors you can't account for such as duress.

[-] HeyJoe@lemmy.world 1 points 3 hours ago

Public mass shootings is a good start for a baseline for me.

[-] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world 0 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

fictional scenario that has never happened

Remember that guy a few years back that killed a someone on a bus and ate their face? Seen by literally dozens of passengers who watched in horror as well as the bus cam. He was arrested while still on the bus.

It can happen and does. This is but one of many examples. There are times when it can be absolutely, 100%, without any shadow of a doubt, proved that some committed a heinous crime. To think oftherwise is sheer ignorance. You come off as a child.

[-] FlowVoid@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago

I think you can. For example, I am 100% sure that Ethan Crumbley shot his classmates. (That doesn't mean I think he should be executed though).

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[-] x00za@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 11 hours ago

Nowadays people just want to see other people burn

[-] SnotFlickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 30 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

Knowing about how deeply police intimidate, manipulate, and gaslight inmates/people in custody to get these confessions, both confessions should be under deep scrutiny.

"Criminals" intimated into confession is literally just the police refusing to do their actual jobs and using emotional and mental manipulation to "crack the case." They didn't find the killer, they just bullied a plausible suspect into "admitting" they did it.

Fucking sickening.

[-] spankmonkey@lemmy.world 15 points 10 hours ago

Confessions in police custody without being verified as voluntarily provided by defense counsel should not be admissible in court as a confession.

The death penalty should be abolished.

Appeals should have the same reasonable doubt standard as a trail. If new information introduces reasonable doubt is juat as important as whether they followed procedures during the trial. The whole idea that 'it should have been introduced at trial' is commonly used to dismiss appeals based on evidence that was excluded or not available at the time, especially for defendents that can't afford high priced lawyers.

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[-] apfelwoiSchoppen@lemmy.world 6 points 11 hours ago
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this post was submitted on 19 Sep 2024
306 points (99.0% liked)

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