South Carolina to Resume Executions in January After Holiday Delay
COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina is set to resume executions following a holiday pause, with the state Supreme Court scheduling the next execution for Jan. 31.
State officials aim to carry out death sentences for multiple inmates who have exhausted their appeals but faced delays due to a lack of lethal injection drugs. Marion Bowman Jr., 44, is scheduled for execution at the end of the month. Bowman was convicted in the 2001 shooting death of a friend whose burned body was discovered in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County. On Friday, his attorneys said Bowman continues to assert his innocence and called the scheduled execution “unconscionable” due to lingering doubts about his conviction.
If carried out, Bowman would be the third inmate executed since September, following the state’s procurement of lethal injection drugs. The two previous executions — Freddie Owens on Sept. 20 and Richard Moore on Nov. 1 — were conducted by lethal injection, though inmates may also choose electrocution or death by firing squad.
The CC News Network was at the Richard Moore execution, and covered it live for our viewers and readers.
Three other inmates are awaiting execution dates. The court ruled that executions can be spaced at least five weeks apart.
Bowman’s execution date could have been set as early as Dec. 6, but the court granted a request by attorneys representing the four inmates awaiting execution to delay scheduling until January. The attorneys cited the emotional strain and timing during the holiday season.
“Six consecutive executions with virtually no respite will take a substantial toll on all involved, particularly during a time of year that is so important to families,” the attorneys wrote in court filings.

State attorneys responded that prison officials were prepared to maintain the original schedule, noting that South Carolina had previously conducted executions during the holiday season, including five executions between December 1998 and January 1999.
South Carolina had a 13-year hiatus on executions due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. The delay ended this past fall after the state legislature passed a shield law in 2022 allowing officials to keep drug suppliers’ identities confidential. In July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way for executions to resume.
Bowman’s defense team has requested a clemency hearing from Gov. Henry McMaster, though no South Carolina governor has ever commuted a death sentence to life without parole in the modern era of capital punishment.
The state’s prisons director has until next week to confirm that all execution methods — lethal injection, electrocution, and the newly approved firing squad — will be available as options for Bowman.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the last firing squad execution in the U.S. took place in Utah in 2010.
Bowman was convicted of killing 21-year-old Kandee Martin, with several witnesses testifying against him in exchange for plea deals with prosecutors. One witness claimed Bowman was angry because Martin owed him money, while another said he believed Martin was wearing a recording device to have him arrested.
Bowman’s legal team has asked the state Supreme Court to delay the execution and consider his final appeal, which argues that his trial lawyer provided ineffective assistance and harbored racial bias. His attorneys claim Bowman’s defense was compromised by the lawyer’s sympathy for the white victim and disregard for his Black client.
“His conviction was based on unreliable, incentivized testimony from biased witnesses who received reduced or dropped charges in exchange for their cooperation,” said Lindsey S. Vann, executive director of Justice 360, an advocacy group supporting Bowman. “His trial lawyer pressured him into pleading guilty and made other poor decisions influenced by racist views.”
Since the death penalty’s reinstatement in 1976, South Carolina has executed 45 inmates, ranking among the top 10 states for executions. In the early 2000s, the state averaged three executions annually.
The state’s death row population has significantly declined since 2011, when there were 63 inmates awaiting execution. As of today, 30 inmates remain on death row, with many having their sentences reduced through appeals or dying of natural causes.
President Joe Biden used his powers as president to commute all but 3 federal executions to life sentences. In South Carolina, Brandon Council was convicted in September 2019 in Federal court for the 2017 murders of CresCom Bank employees Donna Major, 59, and Kathryn Skeen, 36, during a robbery in Conway, South Carolina.
Expect the CC News Network to cover the execution of Marion Bowman, slated for January 31st, 2025 at Broad River Correctional Institute.
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