South Carolina Supreme Court ruling lists order six death row inmates will be executed

Three Upstate men on South Carolina’s death row now know the order in which the state will put them to death.  

The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Friday on a petition filed by the men and three others requesting there be at least a 13-week interval between executions. The court responded by setting at least a 35-day minimum between executions.

The South Carolina Attorney General’s Office replied to the inmate’s petition stating there should be “no more than 28 days between executions.” Their reasoning being that a 13-week interval would mean “only two executions could be completed this year” and that “it would take all next year to complete the remaining four.”

A Columbia-based nonprofit advocacy group for inmates, Justice 360, led the inmates in signing the petition. The group declined to comment about the Supreme Court’s decision.

South Carolina last carried out an execution in 2011. Jeffery Brian Motts, 36, of Greenville died via lethal injection.  

Here’s the list of inmates expected to be executed in the coming months, all have exhausted their appeals beginning with Freddie Eugene Owens, of Greenville, whose execution has been set for Sept. 20.  

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Freddie Eugene Owens  

On Aug. 23, the South Carolina Department of Corrections gave Owens, 46, notice that he would be executed on Sept. 20.  

In 1999, Ownes was convicted of murder in the 1997 Halloween murder of Irene Graves, 41, at a Speedway convenience store. He was sentenced to death. 

Owens was originally scheduled to be put to death on June 25, 2021, but he and other death row inmates listed filed a lawsuit that halted the execution. 

Owens will have until Sept. 6 to decide his choice of execution.  

Richard Benard Moore 

Richard Moore, 59, of Spartanburg, was convicted of killing a convenience store clerk in 1999. 

Moore received the death penalty on Oct. 22, 2001, after a jury found him guilty of murder for shooting 42-year-old James Mahoney on Sept. 16, 1999, at Nikki’s Speedy Mart in Spartanburg’s Whitney Community. 

He was set to be executed in April 2022, but it was also halted because of the lawsuit.

Marion Bowman Jr.  

On May 24, 2002, Marion Bowman, 44, was convicted of the murder of KanDee Louise Martin, 21, of Orangeburg.  

Bowman was sentenced to death a year later on May 23, 2003.  

According to South Carolina Supreme Court documents, Bowman shot and killed Martin on Feb. 17, 2001, then set a car on fire with Martin’s body inside to hide the evidence.   

Brad Sigmon 

In 2001, Brad Sigmon, 66, of Greenville, was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s parents, David and Gladys Larke. He was placed on death row in July 2002. 

He was also sentenced to 30 years in prison for burglary.

Sigmon’s death order was given in April 2022, and execution was set for May 13, 2022, but it was stayed.

Steven Bixby 

A Chesterfield County jury gave Steven Bixby, 57, the death sentence in 2007 for the murder of a sheriff deputy and state constable. 

In December 2003, Bixby along with his parents, Rita Leona Bixby and Arthur Walls Bixby, shot and killed Abbeville County Sheriff Deputy Danny Wilson and State Constable Donnie Outz.  

The shooting occurred after the Bixby family had a dispute with the South Carolina Department of Transportation over the widening of Highway 72. They were upset that a part of their property was to be used for the widening.  

Both parents died while in prison.

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Mikal Mahdi 

Mikal Mahdi, 41, was a resident of Virginia when he went on an East Coast crime spree that ended when he killed a South Carolina deputy. 

In 2006, Mahdi pled guilty to the murder and robbery of a North Carolina store clerk and Orangeburg County Sheriff’s captain. He was sentenced to death the same year.

Mahdi started his murder spree on July 15, 2004, when he used a stolen vehicle to travel to Winston-Salem. According to court documents, Mahdi shot and killed a convenience store clerk. Three days later, OCSO Capt. James Myers discovered Mahdi hiding in a shed on his property. Mahdi shot Myers using a gun he found on the property.  

Mahdi was eventually caught by law enforcement in Florida.