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South Carolina executes man convicted of murder in state’s third execution since September

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South Carolina executes man convicted of murder in state’s third execution since September


A South Carolina inmate was executed on Friday, the third time in four months the state has carried out the death penalty as it goes through a backlog of inmates who exhausted their appeals when the state was unable to obtain lethal injection drugs.

Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was executed by lethal injection at 6:27 p.m. for his murder conviction in the shooting death of his friend, 21-year-old Kandee Martin, whose burned body was found in the trunk of a car in 2001.

Bowman has maintained his innocence since his arrest. He said at the beginning of his final statement: “I did not kill Kandee Martin.”

His lawyers raised questions about his conviction, noting that he was convicted on the word of several friends and relatives who received plea deals with prosecutors in exchange for their testimony.

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SOUTH CAROLINA MAN SENTENCED TO DEATH CONCERNED ABOUT DRUG AFTER ISSUE DURING NOVEMBER EXECUTION

Marion Bowman Jr., 44, was executed by lethal injection at 6:27 p.m. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)

When the curtain to the death chamber opened, Bowman briefly looked at his attorney on the other side of the glass in the witness room before looking back up at the ceiling and closing his eyes, opening his eyes once or twice as he looked up.

After Bowman’s attorney finished reading his final statement and poem, his breathing became heavy, and he puffed his lips as he exhaled. In less than a minute, his breathing stopped. Twenty minutes later, a doctor with a stethoscope listened to his chest and placed a hand on his neck, patting him as she finished.

Bowman said in his final statement that death row inmates might be viewed as the worst of the worst, but they have all grown and changed from what “they were when they had their moment that cost them everything.”

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“I know that Kandee’s family is in pain, they are justifiably angry,” Bowman said. “If my death brings them some relief and ability to focus on the good times and funny stories, then I guess it will have served a purpose. I hope they find peace.”

For his final meal, Bowman had fried seafood, including shrimp, fish and oysters, as well as chicken wings and tenders, onion rings, banana pudding, German chocolate cake, cranberry juice and pineapple juice.

Bowman was offered a plea deal for a life sentence but instead went to trial because he said he was not guilty.

His execution was the third in South Carolina since September, when the state – once one of the busiest for executions – ended a 13-year pause in carrying out the death penalty. The pause was caused in part by the state having difficulty obtaining lethal injection drugs after its supply expired because of pharmaceutical companies’ concerns that they would have to disclose they had sold the drugs to state officials. The state legislature then passed a shield law allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers private.

SOUTH CAROLINA SCHEDULING EXECUTIONS AGAIN AFTER A PAUSE FOR THE HOLIDAYS

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Electric chair

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, File)

In July, the state Supreme Court cleared the way to resume executions. Freddie Owens was put to death on Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1, with both men choosing to die by lethal injection.

This was the first execution in the U.S. this year after 25 were carried out in the country last year. 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 executed 46 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.

Bowman did not ask Republican Gov. Henry McMaster for clemency, but the governor’s office still released a letter denying clemency, noting that he received informal requests and petitions to spare Bowman’s life.

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.

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Bowman’s lawyer, Lindsey Vann, said his client did not want to spend additional decades in prison for a crime he did not commit. He had already spent more than half his life on death row.

“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.

Bowman was convicted in Dorchester County in 2002 in connection with Martin’s death the year before. Several friends and family members testified against him as part of plea deals 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.

Execution room

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

Bowman said he sold drugs to Martin, who was a friend of his for years, and sometimes she would pay with sex, but he said he did not kill her.

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The final appeal from his current lawyers argued that Bowman’s trial attorney was not prepared and had too much sympathy for the white victim and not Bowman, who is black. The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected the argument.

Bowman’s lawyers also raised concerns about his execution due to his weight. An anesthesiologist said he feared South Carolina’s secret lethal injection protocols did not take into account that Bowman, listed as 389 pounds in prison records, was heavier, as it can be difficult to properly insert an IV into a blood vessel and determine the dose of the drugs needed in people with obesity.

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His lawyers were concerned that the drug used to put Moore to death in November required two large doses more than 11 minutes apart.

An anesthesiologist involved in reviewing Moore’s autopsy records said they showed fluid in the lungs, leading lawyers to believe he “consciously experienced feelings of drowning and suffocation during the 23 minutes that it took to bring about his death.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.



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South-Carolina

South Carolina WBB blasts Georgia 74-42, turns attention to Texas showdown

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South Carolina WBB blasts Georgia 74-42, turns attention to Texas showdown


ATHENS, Ga. — Business handled, and it’s on to Texas.

South Carolina women’s basketball entered its game against SEC cellar dwellers Georgia just needing to stay focused and avoid injuries before its road showdown at No. 4 Texas on Sunday, and the Gamecocks did just that. South Carolina stormed out to a 12-2 lead and never faced any serious game pressure in a 74-42 win at Stegeman Coliseum.

This is SEC win number 57 in a row for South Carolina (22-1, 10-0 SEC), and it was never really in doubt. After Georgia (9-15, 1-9 SEC) scored the opening basket of the game, the Gamecocks ripped off a dozen points in front of a mostly garnet and black crowd on the road. Georgia coach Kate Abrahamson-Henderson deployed her usual paint-packing 2-3 zone, a system which has given the Gamecocks trouble in all three meetings over the last two seasons.

But there would be no halftime deficit or single-digit game in the fourth quarter tonight. Joyce Edwards, Sania Feagin and Chloe Kitts took turns camping out in the middle of the zone, collecting passes and either going up strong or distributing the ball back out to open guards. Te-Hina Paopao knocked down two 3-pointers in the run, and Bree Hall had the first of her two in the game. On the evening South Carolina shot 8-of-19 from 3-point range, its most made in a game since it beat Oklahoma on Jan. 19.

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And as always playing a zone as opposed to a straight man-to-man, rebounding was a problem for Georgia. It always is for opponents against South Carolina’s large front line, but the positioning of the zone made the Bulldogs ripe for the picking. The Gamecocks won the rebounding battle 46-28 and 13-7 on the offensive glass, led by Feagin’s nine.

“I thought we did a better job of boxing out,” Dawn Staley said. “I thought we did a better job of just scapping. If we couldn’t get it, hit it out. Chloe was gret, Feagin was great, I thought Tessa [Johnson] got in there, and just was scrappy. We’ll need every bit of that as we move forward.

Late in the first half with a 16-point lead already in tow, Staley started experimenting. Specifically, she busted out a concept she has not used all season. With Paopao, Raven Johnson, MiLaysia Fulwiley and Maddy McDaniel on the court, it was a four-guard look.

Four guards, and true freshman center Adhel Tac anchoring it.

The group only played a little over two minutes together, but did outscore the Bulldogs by four and at least provided Staley with some proof of concept for her idea.

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“It was just to get a shooter in there,” Staley said. “They were playing small ball, too, so we just kind of matched up with them and spaced the floor to see if we could get some penetration and some kickouts and just move the zone a little bit. I thought Maddy did a great job today. We’ve been working with her to get her back to her pre-Christmas form, and I think she’s getting there. She’s about there.”

The fact she could test out lineups in the first half summed up the evening, though. The Gamecocks allowed an SEC-low 42 points, blocked eight shots, forced 17 turnovers and took over defensively for as straightforward a win as you will ever find at this time of year.

All the better for this team, too, because Sunday figures to be anything but with the re-match at Texas on the horizon.

“They’re a great team, and we’re a great team” Kitts said. “It’ll be very fun, especially because we get to go to Texas. We’ve never been to Texas and played over there, so I’m super excited for that.”

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Dawn Staley’s Super Bowl 59 prediction for her beloved Eagles: ‘Tush push us over the finish line’

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Dawn Staley’s Super Bowl 59 prediction for her beloved Eagles: ‘Tush push us over the finish line’


South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley is confident in the Philadelphia Eagles to win Super Bowl 59.

The Eagles, Staley’s hometown team, face the Kansas City Chiefs in New Orleans on Sunday and she believes the Vince Lombardi Trophy is heading back to Pennsylvania.

“Rest assured my Eagles fans, we got this one,” Staley said Wednesday. “Now, get mad if we turn the ball over, get mad if we fumble the ball, get mad if they score on us. Just remember, when the clock strikes zero, we will be winners.”

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Staley didn’t give an exact score and said she was thinking a win by two touchdowns but felt like that was a little bit bold. The Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes are trying to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls. The Eagles last Super Bowl win was in 2018.

“But it doesn’t matter, tush push us over the finish line to get us a Super Bowl,” Staley said, in reference to a signature play call from the Eagles.

Despite South Carolina facing Texas on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET, Staley was planning on going to the Super Bowl in New Orleans but no longer can. President Donald Trump announced he will attend the Super Bowl and according to the Federal Aviation Administration, there are laws that restrict air traffic in proximity to the president. Staley said that is why she can’t go.

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Ahead of the NFC Championship game on Jan. 26, Staley said she wanted a comfortable lead by the time she boarded the plane to go to Knoxville for a game on the 27th. The Eagles ended up beating the Washington Commanders 55-23.

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin



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Protesters rally at State House in protest of Project 2025

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Protesters rally at State House in protest of Project 2025


COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – A South Carolina Couple gathered at the State House Wednesday in protest of Project 2025.

Haley Weaver and Blake Justice have come together as organizers in the 50501 movement to lead the rally today.

Organizers said the rally’s purpose is to encourage SC residents to be educated on Project 2025, and the infringements they say the project has on the constitution and rights of American Citizens.

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