A death row killer who shot his friend before her bullet-ridden body was found in a scorched car is set to be executed on Friday.
Marion Bowman Jr. maintains that he did not murder 21-year-old high school acquaintance Kandee Martin in February 2001, five days before her son’s second birthday. His final appeal against execution, claiming that he did not receive a vigorous defense because his lawyer was racist, was rejected by the Supreme Court on Thursday.
In May 2002, 15 months after Martin’s death, Bowman was convicted of murder and arson after friends and family testified against him. He was sentenced to death the same day.
After two decades on death row, Bowman will on Friday become South Carolina’s 46th execution since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. He will be executed at Broad River Correctional Institution at 6pm on Friday with a single dose of lethal drug Pentobarbital.
"I am so sorry for Kandee and her family, but I did not do it," Bowman wrote in a recent online statement. "Her family has suffered a loss that can not be undone. They have been through trials, and appeals, but they have never heard the truth from me. I know this won’t bring them satisfaction, but this is my truth.
"I just don’t want to be executed or imprisoned for life for a crime that I didn’t commit," he wrote.
He has previously claimed to have refused a plea deal guaranteeing a life sentence because he did not do it.
But Martin’s family have described the convicted murderer as a liar and said they are “counting down the minutes” until his death.
Bowman’s execution will be the third since a 13-year pause on executions ended in South Carolina - historically one of the busiest states for executions - caused in part because state officials could not obtain lethal injection drugs.
The killer’s lawyers argued during the case that his conviction relied on testimonies from individuals who received deals from prosecutors. Several witnesses recalled hearing Bowman swearing to kill the young women, with prosecutors arguing Martin owed Bowman money for crack cocaine.
Bowman’s sister told Dorchester County court that her 20-year-old brother was in the passenger seat in the hours before the murder, when they encountered Martin with a group of friends and stopped the car.
When Martin told him to wait until her conversation was finished, Bowman said “that bitch be dead by dark,” his sister testified.
James Tywan Gadson, Bowman’s cousin who became the star witness in the murder trial as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors for a reduced sentence, watched as Bowman shot Martin after the trio had driven to a remote spot.
Gadson said in his testimony that he heard Bowman telling him he wanted to kill Martin as they got out of the car. He then watched him mercilessly shoot Martin in the chest and head as she desperately pleaded for life, according to the South Carolina Daily Gazette.
Bowman has admitted that he had sold drugs to Martin and that she would sometimes pay with sex. But since his arrest, he has consistently denied killing her.
"I have done some things in life I regret," Bowman added in his statement. "I regret the role I had in dealing to Kandee and know that her addiction probably led to her death. But I did not do this."
The killer is not asking Governor Henry McMaster for clemency. Lindsey Vann, Bowman’s lawyer, said didn’t want to spend more decades in prison for a crime he did not commit.
“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.
No governor has given mercy and reduced a death sentence to life in prison without parole, since the death penalty in South Carolina was reinstated.
The state Supreme Court cleared the way to restart executions in South Carolina in July. Freddie Owens was put to death by lethal injection Sept. 20 and Richard Moore was executed on Nov. 1.
The court will allow an execution every five weeks until the other three inmates who have run out of appeals are put to death.
Since the pause in executions, South Carolina’s death row population has halved from 63 to 30. Around 20 inmates have been taken off after successful appeals, while others have died of natural causes.
