COLUMBIA, S.C. — The South Carolina Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stop the execution of Freddie Owens who is set to die by lethal injection next week in the state’s first execution in 13 years. South Carolina Department of CorrectionsThe decision keeps on track the planned execution of Owens on Sept. 20 at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia. The state didn’t set out to pause executions, but its supply of lethal injection drugs expired and companies refused to sell the state more if the transaction was made public. Henry McMaster alone has the power to reduce Owens’ sentence to life in prison. Not even the state of South Carolina.

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Persons: Freddie Owens, Owens, Freddie Eugene Owens, Irene Graves, Steven Golden, Graves, couldn’t, Golden, “, ”, Henry McMaster, McMaster, hasn’t, ” McMaster, Hillary Taylor, ” Taylor, David Kennedy Organizations: COLUMBIA, South Carolina Supreme, Freddie Eugene Owens . South Carolina Department of Corrections, Correctional Institution, Prosecutors, South, NAACP Locations: Freddie Eugene Owens ., Columbia, Greenville, South Carolina, U.S, Laurens County