South-Carolina

South Carolina prepares for third execution since September

Published

12 months ago

January 31, 2025

South Carolina prepares for third execution since September

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn’t find lethal injection drugs.

Marion Bowman Jr.’s execution is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at a Columbia prison. Bowman, 44, was convicted of murder in the shooting death of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of a car.

Bowman has maintained his innocence since his arrest. His lawyers said he was convicted on the word of several friends and relatives who received deals or had charges dropped by prosecutors in exchange for their testimony.

Bowman, who has been on death row more than half his life, was offered a plea deal for a life sentence but went to trial because he said he was not guilty.

Bowman’s death would mark the first execution in the U.S. in 2025. Twenty-five executions were carried out in the country last year.

South Carolina paused executions for 13 years in part because state officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs. The General Assembly passed a shield law, and prison officials were able to find a compounding pharmacy willing to make the pentobarbital if its identity wasn’t made public.

Bowman is not asking Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency. His lawyer, Lindsey Vann, said Bowman didn’t want to spend more decades in prison for a crime he did not commit.

“After more than two decades of battling a broken system that has failed him at every turn, Marion’s decision is a powerful refusal to legitimize an unjust process that has already stolen so much of his life,” Vann said in a statement Thursday.

No governor in the previous 45 executions in South Carolina since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 has given mercy and reduced a death sentence to life in prison without parole.

Bowman was convicted in Dorchester County in 2002 of murder in the killing of 21-year-old Kandee Martin in 2001. A number of friends and family members testified against him as part of plea deals.

One friend said Bowman was angry because Martin owed him money. A second testified Bowman thought Martin was wearing a recording device to get him arrested on a charge.

Bowman said he sold drugs to Martin, who was a friend of his for years and sometimes she would pay with sex, but he denied killing her.

Bowman is Black like the other two inmates executed since the pause ended. The final appeal from his lawyers said his trial attorney had too much sympathy for his white victim. The South Carolina Supreme Court called the argument meritless.

One other concern raised by Bowman’s lawyers is his weight. An anesthesiologist said he fears South Carolina’s secret lethal injection protocols don’t take into account Bowman is listed as 389 pounds (176 kilograms) in prison records. It can be difficult to properly get an IV into a blood vessel and determine the dose of the drugs needed in people with obesity.

Prison officials used two doses of pentobarbital given 11 minutes apart in the previous execution, according to autopsy records.

Before the 13-year pause, South Carolina was among the busiest states for executions.

The state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions in July. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1.

The court will allow an execution every five weeks until the other three inmates who have run out of appeals are put to death.

South Carolina has put 45 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Nine states have put more inmates to death.

But since the unintentional execution pause, South Carolina’s death row population has dwindled. The state had 63 condemned inmates in early 2011. It currently has 30. About 20 inmates have been taken off death row and received different prison sentences after successful appeals. Others have died of natural causes.

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South-Carolina

Statehouse Dispatch: Feb. 2, 2026 – ACLU of South Carolina

Published

1 hour ago

January 31, 2026

Press Room

Statehouse Dispatch: Feb. 2, 2026 – ACLU of South Carolina

When we can, we highlight good ideas in the Statehouse. They do exist! Here are two bills that have a chance of passing — if we speak up and let lawmakers know we support them.

Senate Bill 385 would protect the wellness of pregnant people when they enter the carceral system. Under this bill, if a person informs medical staff upon entering a jail or prison that they are pregnant and then test positive on a pregnancy test, they would be eligible for release on bail for the duration of the pregnancy and 12 weeks after the birth of a child. Pregnant people would only be eligible if they are deemed not to be a threat to themselves or others.

This bill currently has one sponsor, Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine of Richland County. One way to improve a bill’s likelihood of passing is to find more cosponsors. Look up your state senator using the Find Your Legislators page and let them know you support S. 385.

Another bill in need of more co-sponsors is Senate Bill 16, which would stop the state from committing children to the Department of Juvenile Justice for “status offenses,” or behaviors that are only illegal because of someone’s status as a minor. Examples of status offenses include truancy and delinquency.

Before committing a child to DJJ for incorrigibility, parents or guardians would have to show they have tried counseling first. This bill would make several positive changes to ensure children are given a chance at rehabilitation rather than confinement or punishment.

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South-Carolina

Dunleavy’s gifts major donation

Published

2 days ago

January 29, 2026

Press Room

Jan. 27 was a great day to kick off the year and put much needed funds — courtesy of a record-breaking $47,501 check by Dunleavy’s Pub — in the Special Olympics coffers.

In addition to the vast number of regular events Special Olympics South Carolina provides for athletes around the state, 2026 is also a year of the Special Olympics USA games. South Carolina will be sending a delegation of 152 athletes and coaches to Minnesota at a cost of about $1300 per attendee.

All fundraising efforts are vital this year, reports Special Olympics South Carolina Director of Marketing & Development Sandye Williams.

The organization’s next polar plunge will take place in February on the Isle of Palms, followed by a “huge” bocce tournament on May 23.

Viist www.boccebash.com for more information.

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South-Carolina

South Carolina woman Dana Kinlaw fatally shot, set on fire after she was ambushed by trio during meeting to buy puppy

Published

2 days ago

January 29, 2026

Press Room

South Carolina woman Dana Kinlaw fatally shot, set on fire after she was ambushed by trio during meeting to buy puppy

A South Carolina woman who believed she was buying a puppy was ambushed by three brutes who fatally shot her, set her body on fire and left her to burn inside a car on the side of the road.

Dana Marie Kinlaw, 40, was lured to a rural road in Effingham, South Carolina, on Jan. 22 when she was allegedly killed by 19-year-old Iryanna Jarissa Fleming and 31-year-old Daquinn Taheen Thomas and Nikko Christopher Carraway, according to the Florence County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials believe Kinlaw’s death was part of a retaliation murder for a recent killing in neighboring Darlington County, WBMF reported.

Kinlaw was driving with Fleming when they stopped on Atlantic Road near Springbranch Road in rural woodlands 95 miles east of the state capital in Columbia.

“Supposedly, they went there together,” Florence County Sheriff TJ Joye told the outlet. “Miss Fleming, she was 19 years of age, a friend of Miss Kinlaw, and they rode there together supposedly to buy a puppy.”

Fleming and Thomas are accused of setting up the fake sale for a pooch Kinlaw had been eyeing to persuade her to travel to the area where they allegedly launched their ambush attack.

Kinlaw, a South Carolina resident, was fatally shot before the suspected killers poured a liquid over her body and set her on fire inside the car, the sheriff’s office said.

Deputies were called to the area about a car on fire and discovered the vehicle still engulfed in flames with a human body inside.

Florence County Coroner Keith Von Lutcken identified the remains as Kinlaw’s body.

Von Lutcken ordered Kinlaw’s body be sent to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston for an autopsy. The results have not been released.

Fleming and Thomas were both arrested hours after Kinlaw’s death and charged with murder, first-degree arson and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Carraway was arrested on Wednesday and was charged with the same three crimes as his alleged accomplices.

Officials said the murder was related to another killing 35 miles away in Darlington County and involved Kinlaw’s son, but didn’t share further information.

“We believe there was a murder committed in Darlington County, which we made the arrest in Lake City that connects them to that arrest with Darlington County officials,” Joye told WBMF. “We feel that her son was involved in that in some way, shape, or form, and we feel this is a retaliation to that murder.”

Both Thomas and Carraway have a laundry list of criminal cases in Florence County dating back as far as 2014, according to court records viewed by The Post.

Thomas faced multiple attempted murder charges and violent armed robbery cases.

He was sentenced to 9 months in prison back in March 2025 for possessing a firearm as a convicted criminal.

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