South Carolina is beginning to schedule executions again after a pause for the holidays, with the state Supreme Court setting the next one for Jan. 31.

The state is looking to carry out death sentences for several inmates who are out of appeals but who had their executions delayed because prison officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs.

Marion Bowman Jr., 44, is set to be put to death at the end of January for his murder conviction in the shooting of a friend whose burned body was found in the trunk of her car in Dorchester County in 2001.

Bowman’s lawyers said Friday that he maintains his innocence. His lawyers also argue that putting him to death would be “unconscionable” due to unresolved doubts about his conviction.

SOUTH CAROLINA INMATE DIES BY LETHAL INJECTION, ENDING STATE’S 13-YEAR PAUSE ON EXECUTIONS

He would be the third inmate executed since September after the state obtained lethal injection drugs. The first two — Freddie Owens, who was put to death on Sept. 20, and Richard Moore, who was executed on Nov. 1 — chose to die by lethal injection, but inmates can also choose electrocution or a new firing squad.

Three additional inmates are awaiting execution dates. The state Supreme Court ruled that executions can be set five weeks apart.

The court could have set Bowman’s execution date as early as Dec. 6, but the court accepted without comment a request from lawyers for the four inmates awaiting execution to delay the executions until January.

“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 lawyers wrote in court documents.

Attorneys representing the state responded that prison officials were prepared to maintain the original schedule and that the state had conducted executions around Christmas and New Year’s in the past, including five between Dec. 4, 1998, and Jan. 8, 1999.

Once one of the busiest states for executions, South Carolina had a 13-year pause on executions before resuming this past fall due to trouble obtaining lethal injection drugs after its supply expired because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns that they would have to disclose that they had sold the drugs to state officials. But the state legislature passed a shield law two years ago allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers private.

In July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way to resume executions.

Death row inmates can also ask Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, for clemency, but no governor in the state has ever reduced a death sentence to life in prison without parole in the modern era of the death penalty.

This photo shows the state’s death chamber in Columbia, South Carolina, including the electric chair, right, and a firing squad chair, left. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

South Carolina’s prisons director has until next week to confirm that lethal injection, the electric chair and the newly added option of a firing squad are all available options for Bowman.

The last time an inmate in the U.S. was executed by a firing squad was in Utah in 2010, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Bowman was convicted of killing Kandee Martin, 21, in 2001. Several friends and family members testified against him as part of plea deals they reached with prosecutors.

One friend said Bowman was upset because Martin owed him money, while a second testified that Bowman believed Martin was wearing a recording device to have him arrested.

Bowman’s lawyers asked the state Supreme Court to delay his execution to allow a hearing on his last-ditch appeal arguing that his trial lawyer was not prepared and had too much sympathy for the white victim and not his black client.

His current lawyers said Friday that he did not receive a fair trial and lacked effective legal representation.

Bowman’s trial lawyer pressured him to plead guilty and “made other poor decisions based on his racist views rather than strategic legal counsel,” according to Lindsey S. Vann, executive director of the inmate-advocacy group Justice 360.

SOUTH CAROLINA EXECUTES RICHARD MOORE DESPITE BROADLY SUPPORTED PLEA TO CUT SENTENCE TO LIFE

The room where inmates are executed in Columbus, South Carolina. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

“His conviction was based on unreliable, incentivized testimony from biased witnesses who received reduced or dropped sentences in exchange for their cooperation,” wrote Vann, who issued the statement on behalf of Bowman’s legal team.

South Carolina has executed 45 inmates since the death penalty was resumed in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, the state was carrying out an average of three executions per year. Only nine states have killed more inmates.

Since the unintentional execution pause starting in 2011, the state’s death row population has been reduced significantly.

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The state had 63 death row inmates in early 2011, but now only has 30. About 20 inmates have been removed from death row and received different sentences after successful appeals, while others have died of natural causes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Following an 85-50 loss to No. 17 Mississippi State, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris spoke to the media who made the trip to Starkville after the game. Below is a summary of what he had to say.

— Mississippi State did a lot of things well, South Carolina didn’t do many things well at all. They played poorly in a lot of ways today.

— Sometimes it’s like that. This was the first SEC game for a couple guys on the team that play heavy minutes. But they also have a lot of experienced guys who didn’t play great. MSU played great. You’re going to get a wide spread when things like this happen.

— Looked at their game last year at Mississippi State, and the SEC opener at home against them last year. South Carolina played atrocious but went into halftime with a lead because they defended on a consistent basis. This year, they’re still learning how to do that. Not sure why it was a bad start today. They just didn’t have it.

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— Would agree that the team wasn’t physical or aggressive today. You just do it to fix that problem. By nature, Mississippi State is a more aggressive group of individuals. Needed to match that aggressiveness with resistance, which they didn’t today. To dig deeper defensively, that takes some real maturity. That was one area he didn’t think they answered the bell. They didn’t compete that way.

— Wouldn’t surprise him if they went 2-for-19 from three or if they didn’t adjust to some of the unique things MSU does as a defensive unit. But not fighting, that did surprise him. It doesn’t anger him. It just surprises him.

— Been in a lot of games over his coaching career. He’s seen that a lot where teams have struggled in games. Always optimistic about how his team will respond. But at some point in the second half, he felt some disconnect that the light wasn’t coming on, which is a dangerous game to play.

— With the slow starts, there’s been a variety of ways in which they’ve struggled to score. Sometimes it’s just missing shots that don’t fall your way. The case today was struggling to pass the ball to the guys in the same colored uniforms. It just seems like things are connected in terms of one guy struggling which leads to another struggling as well.

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— It’s hard to throw a guy out there who hasn’t played a lot of minutes (in reference to being asked about Arden Conyers). It’s hard to inject a person into a scenario when they haven’t been in this scenario much before. Some of Cam Scott’s minutes looked like that to some degree with struggles. That’s hard to go to a guy like Conyers who hasn’t been in those spots yet.

— His urgency is the same for every single game. Every single game. It’s an 18-hole, 18-game story. At some point, you’ll look back and say this is what you did or this is not what you did. For him, there’s not one bit more urgency. This is a good team. They are as motivated to be 1-1 in the conference as they would be if they were 1-0 after today. They are very urgent in everything they do.

South Carolina football fans feel like their Gamecocks are on the rise. Following a strong back half of 2024, they are not alone in those thoughts. The hype surrounding USC and some of the team’s stars will be loud this offseason.

On Friday, On3’s Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman released their way-too-early 2025 top 10, and South Carolina cracked the list. In fact, the Gamecocks made it with room to spare, coming in at No. 7.

Their entire top 10 is below.

1. Texas Longhorns
2. Oregon Ducks
3. Ohio State Buckeyes
4. Penn State Nittany Lions
5. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
6. Georgia Bulldogs
7. South Carolina Gamecocks
8. Clemson Tigers
9. Florida Gators
10. Auburn Tigers

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South Carolina’s inclusion at No. 7, according to Staples, comes down to the team’s young talent. Dylan Stewart was an instant-impact menace off the edge, and then quarterback LaNorris Sellers turned into a star. Like Sellers and Stewart, left tackle Josiah Thompson also garnered some Freshman All-American love. The Gamecocks are bringing in their third top-20 high school recruiting class in a row and have hit home runs in the transfer portal in two of the past three cycles.

Living up to the hype of offseason top 10 expectations won’t be easy. However, with elite rising sophomores at (arguably) the most important positions on the field, the Gamecocks could be positioned to make a run. New offensive coordinator Mike Shula will need to do well, and the USC defense also will need to be great again. If those things happen and Shane Beamer and company can nail the transfer portal again, then Staples and Wasserman could be onto something.

This year, the Gamecocks finished 9-4 despite being pegged for 5 or 6 wins by most outlets this preseason. Carolina played in the best non-College Football Playoff bowl game, too, though they lost a heartbreaker to Illinois.