Southeast
South Carolina inmate lets lawyer choose lethal injection for execution after he was forced to pick method
A South Carolina inmate forced to choose his execution method left the decision to his lawyer, who reluctantly selected lethal injection rather than the electric chair or a firing squad.
Freddie Owens, 46, said in court papers he cannot choose his execution method because doing so would be taking an active role in his own death and, citing his Muslim faith, he believes suicide is a sin, according to The Associated Press.
Owens’ execution is set for Sept. 20 for the 1997 killing of store clerk Irene Graves during a string of robberies in Greenville, which will mark the first time South Carolina has put an inmate to death in more than 13 years after an involuntary pause in executions over struggles in recent years obtaining lethal injection drugs.
His attorney, Attorney Emily Paavola, sent the form to prison officials on Friday telling them to prepare to kill Owens by lethal injection. She also released a statement saying she remains unsure if prison officials have released enough information about the drug used in this method to ensure it will kill him without causing unbearable pain or agony that could rise to the level of cruel and unusual punishment.
SOUTH CAROLINA DEATH ROW INMATE WANTS TO DELAY EXECUTION, SAYS CO-DEFENDANT LIED ABOUT NOT HAVING PLEA DEAL
Freddie Owens, 46, said he cannot choose his execution method because taking an active role in his death goes against his Muslim faith. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP)
“I have known Mr. Owens for 15 years,” she wrote. “Under the circumstances, and in light of the information currently available to me, I made the best decision I felt I could make on his behalf. I sincerely hope that the South Carolina Department of Corrections’ assurances will hold true.”
Had Paavola not made a decision, state law mandates that Owens would have been killed by the electric chair, and he had said he did not want to die that way.
Once one of the busiest states for executions, South Carolina has not carried out the death penalty since 2011 due to trouble in recent years obtaining lethal injection drugs over 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 last year allowing officials to keep lethal injection drug suppliers private and the state Supreme Court ruled that the electric chair and firing squad would also be available as execution methods.
South Carolina previously used a mixture of three drugs, but will now use one drug, the sedative pentobarbital, for lethal injections in a protocol similar to that of the federal government.
Owens is one of six inmates who have exhausted their appeals seeking to avoid execution. South Carolina currently has 32 inmates on death row.
His attorneys have filed several legal motions since his execution date was set two weeks ago in which they sought to delay his death, but there have been no delays thus far.
He had requested to delay his execution, so his lawyers could argue his co-defendant lied about having a plea deal to testify against Owens in exchange for avoiding the death penalty or a life sentence. Co-defendant Steven Golden testified that Owens shot Graves in the head because she was unable to open the safe at the Greenville store 27 years ago.
“My written plea agreement said the death penalty and life without parole were still possible outcomes and there were no specific guarantees about what my sentence would be,” Golden wrote in a sworn statement last month. “That wasn’t true. We had a verbal agreement that I would not get the death penalty or life without parole.”
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If his lawyer had not made a decision, state law mandates that Owens would have been killed by the electric chair, and he had said he did not want to die that way. (South Carolina Department of Corrections via AP, File)
Golden was sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter, court records show.
The store had surveillance video, but it did not show the shooting clearly. Prosecutors never found the weapon used in the shooting and failed to show any scientific evidence linking Owens to the killing.
Prosecutors said the co-defendant’s testimony was supported by Owens’ confession to his mother, girlfriend and investigators.
State attorneys said concerns over lies about the plea deal and whether jurors could have been biased against Owens after seeing an electronic stun device he was wearing during trial have been handled in multiple appeals and two additional sentencing hearings that also recommended the death penalty after other judges overturned his initial punishment.
“Owens has had ample opportunity to litigate claims regarding his conviction and sentence. He is due no more,” the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office wrote in a court filing.
Owens’ lawyers are also asking for his death sentence to be set aside, at least temporarily, because he was only 19 at the time of the crime and scans show his brain was not fully developed. The lawyers also said a jury was never asked to determine if Owens alone killed the clerk and argued his sentence is too harsh because less than 1% of murder convictions over an armed robbery result in death sentences.
He also sought to delay his execution by arguing the state failed to release enough information about the drug used for lethal injections.
The state Supreme Court said when upholding the new shield law that prison officials had to give a sworn statement that the pentobarbital set to be used under the state’s new lethal injection method is stable, pure and potent enough to kill an inmate.
Corrections Director Bryan Stirling said technicians at the State Law Enforcement Division laboratory tested two vials of the sedative and assured him the drugs are adequate, but released no other details.
Owens’ execution is set for Sept. 20 for the 1997 killing of store clerk Irene Graves during a string of robberies in Greenville. ((AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File))
Owens’ lawyers asked for more information, including the full report from the lab, the expiration date of the likely compounded drug and how it would be stored, citing a photo of a syringe of an execution drug from 2015 in Georgia that crystalized because it was stored too cold.
The South Carolina Supreme Court ruled Thursday that prison officials had released enough information.
The only way for Owens to avoid execution at this point is for the governor to grant clemency and reduce his death sentence to life in prison. But no governor has done that in the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976.
Republican Gov. Henry McMaster has said he will follow longtime tradition and not announce his decision until prison officials make a call from the death chamber just moments before the execution is set to be carried out.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Southeast
Virginia murder suspect in bus stop stabbing had lengthy criminal history, multiple dropped charges
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A Virginia murder suspect accused of fatally stabbing a woman at a bus stop earlier this week has a lengthy criminal history filled with multiple arrests, but was let back onto the streets nearly every time.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is charged with the Monday night killing of Stephanie Minter, 41, of Fredericksburg, at a bus stop shelter, the Fairfax County Police Department said.
Minter was found by officers with stab wounds to her upper body and pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, is accused of killing Stephanie Minter, 41, at a Virginia bus stop. (Fairfax County Police Department; provided)
Jalloh, 32, who was seen on surveillance cameras exiting the bus with Minter at Richmond Highway and Arlington Drive, was arrested the next day.
He was arrested at a liquor store after an employee called 911. At the time, officers arrested him for allegedly shoplifting. Investigators linked him to the murder a day later.
Authorities were still trying to determine a motive for the killing and what led to the deadly stabbing.
A search of online court records revealed Jalloh has more than a dozen arrests in northern Virginia, including on charges of petty larceny and malicious wounding.
In most of the cases, prosecutors dropped the charges, FOX D.C. reported.
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Abdul Jalloh seen on a bus in Virginia. (Fairfax County Police Department)
Laura Birnbaum, the chief of staff for Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, said Jalloh was known to the district attorney’s office and was “acutely aware of the risk he posed to the community.”
“That is why we convicted the defendant of a 2023 malicious wounding charge, and have since made every effort to hold him accountable each subsequent time that he has come in contact with the criminal justice system, including asking him to be held in custody whenever possible,” Birnbaum said.
“Unfortunately, the defendant in this case also had a history of selecting victims with no fixed address – some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” she added. “In multiple cases, we were unable to move forward with prosecution because victims could not be located or contacted.”
Stephanie Minter, 41, was killed on Monday after getting off of a bus in Virginia. (Provided)
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An obituary for Minter described her as a “happy, jolly” person.
“A beam of light in dark places,” the obituary states.
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Southeast
Dem governor under fire after illegal alien allegedly stabs woman to death at bus stop: ‘Heinous’
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EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger to ensure local law enforcement cooperates with federal immigration officials by handing over an illegal immigrant with a lengthy criminal record who allegedly killed a woman earlier this week at a Virginia bus stop.
Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, arrested an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone earlier this week on charges of second-degree murder after he allegedly fatally stabbed a woman, Stephanie Minter, 41, who was found dead at a local bus stop with several wounds to the upper body.
The alleged suspect, Abdul Jalloh, 32, also has a criminal history of more than 30 arrests, according to DHS, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault, identity theft, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, assault and pick-pocketing.
The request from the Trump administration comes after the newly elected Democratic governor of Virginia signed an executive order to end cooperation between federal immigration officials and state and local law enforcement, a move several Democratic Party governors have taken recently amid President Donald Trump’s move to increase deportation operations around the country.
The DHS request asking Virginia officials to cooperate with ICE also comes after an illegal immigrant allegedly murdered someone just days after being released from jail for a separate crime in December.
Abdul Jalloh, 32, and Gov. Abigail Spanberger (Department of Homeland Security/Getty Images)
“We are calling on Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Virginia’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this murderer and violent career criminal from their jail without notifying ICE,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.
“This illegal alien’s murder of an innocent, beautiful American woman came less than 24 hours before Governor Spanberger’s demonization of ICE law enforcement. This heinous criminal is a perfect example of why we need cooperation from sanctuary jurisdictions and the importance of third country removals for the safety of the American people.”
Spanberger’s representatives did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Jalloh entered the United States illegally in 2012, according to DHS, and immigration officials lodged an immigration detainer against him in 2020, whereupon he was granted a final order of removal by a judge who said he could be removed to any country other than Sierra Leone.
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Protesters, using whistles to alert neighborhoods to ICE activity, face off with Minneapolis police officers in Minneapolis Jan. 24, 2026. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)
DHS indicated that ICE cooperation to ensure Jalloh’s deportation is evident after a case Fox News covered in December when a criminal illegal alien from El Salvador, Marvin Morales-Ortez, 23, allegedly killed a man just a day after Fairfax County jail officials let him go.
The immigrant from El Salvador had been in custody on charges of malicious wounding and brandishing a gun, but police released him after the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, led by George Soros-backed prosecutor Steve Descano, dropped the charges.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Fairfax County Sheriff’s office to inquire about why the man had not been handed over to ICE.
The sheriff’s office said, “ICE was aware of Morales-Ortez’s incarceration and elected not to seek a judicial warrant to ensure he remained in custody.
Marvin Morales-Ortez, who is living in the country illegally, was released from Fairfax County custody and then allegedly committed a murder the next day. (Fairfax County Police Department/Getty Images)
“The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office follows all local, state and federal laws when determining whether a person is subject to release from the ADC,” the sheriff’s office told Fox News Digital at the time. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is automatically notified any time a person is booked into the ADC.”
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The same sheriff’s office did not get back to Fox News Digital’s media inquiry for this story on DHS urging officials to cooperate with federal officials.
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Southeast
Illegal immigrant arrested after showing up to Florida Border Patrol office for contract IT work
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FIRST ON FOX: An illegal immigrant who reported to a U.S. Border Patrol site in Florida to perform some Information technology contractual work was arrested when authorities were made aware of his citizenship status, officials said.
Angel Camacho, a Venezuelan citizen, reported to a USBP center in Dania Beach, Florida, Jan. 6 to do some IT work when U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials began vetting him, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Fox News Digital.
During its investigation, it was revealed Camacho was in violation of U.S. immigration laws, authorities said.
Angel Camacho reported to a Florida U.S. Border Patrol center to perform contractual work when he was arrested, a Department of Homeland Security official said. (Getty Images )
“CBP vets all external visitors before allowing them to enter secure facilities to ensure safety and operational integrity,” DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement.
“During the vetting process, CBP uncovered this individual was a tourist visa overstay in the country for over five years.”
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This photo shows a U.S. Border Patrol patch on a border agent’s uniform in McAllen, Texas, Jan. 15, 2019. (Suzanne CordeiroAFP via Getty Images)
Camacho was arrested and transferred to ICE custody, Bis said.
His criminal history includes theft and resisting a Florida Highway Patrol officer, officials said. Federal authorities have nabbed several illegal immigrants in the process of trying to obtain employment in law enforcement and education.
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One Sierra Leone citizen was recently arrested as he was training to become a Pennsylvania corrections officer.
Another illegal immigrant, Ian Roberts, served as the former superintendent of Iowa’s largest district, Des Moines Public Schools, before he was arrested by ICE.
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