South Carolina executed a death row inmate on Friday, just days after a key prosecution witness argued that the defendant lied at trial and that the state was executing an innocent man.
According to the Associated Press, one of the media outlets that witnessed the execution, 46-year-old Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah was killed by lethal injection and pronounced dead at 6:55 p.m.
This week, his lawyers filed an emergency motion to stay his execution, citing new testimony suggesting he was wrongfully convicted, but the state Supreme Court rejected their motion and Republican Gov. Henry McMaster announced shortly before his execution that he would not grant clemency.
According to the Associated Press, Alar, formerly known as Freddie Owens, was strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, with the curtains parted to allow media to watch the proceedings. Alar appeared to say goodbye to his lawyer, who smiled at him. Alar appeared to lose consciousness about a minute later.
His breathing became shallow for several minutes, his face convulsed, and then he stopped moving. He was pronounced dead about 10 minutes later. Allah made no final statements.
Allar’s execution is South Carolina’s first in 13 years and could be the first of a rapid series of executions in the coming months.
The government offered Ala a choice of lethal injection, electrocution, or shooting, but Ala refused to consent to these methods, claiming they were tantamount to suicide and against his Islamic beliefs. Ala’s lawyers recommended lethal injection.
Allah was 19 years old when he was convicted of armed robbery and murder of convenience store cashier Eileen Graves in November 1997. Graves, a 41-year-old mother of three, was shot in the head during the robbery. Allah has always maintained his innocence.
Prosecutors had no forensic evidence linking Allah to the shooting, and although security footage from inside the store showed two masked men with guns, they could not be identified.
The state’s case was based on the testimony of Allah’s friend and co-defendant, Steven Golden, who had also been charged with robbery and murder. When their joint trial began, Golden pleaded guilty to murder, armed robbery and conspiracy and agreed to testify against Allah. Golden, who was 18 at the time of the robbery, said Allah shot Graves.
But on Wednesday, two days before his scheduled execution, Golden signed a shocking affidavit recanting his testimony, saying Allah “was not the person who shot Eileen Graves” and “was not present at the scene of the robbery.” Golden’s affidavit also states that when police questioned him a few days after the robbery, he was high and pressured to write a statement incriminating Allah.
“I substituted (Allah) for the person who was really with me,” he wrote, adding that he concealed the identity of “the real shooter” out of fear that “my comrades might kill me.” He did not reveal the person’s identity.
Golden said he agreed to plead guilty and testify because prosecutors assured him he would not face the death penalty or life in prison, an arrangement that was not disclosed to the jury.
“I do not want (Allah) to execute me for something I have not done,” he wrote in the new affidavit. “This weighs heavily on my mind and I want to have a clear conscience.”
The state attorney general’s office filed a response Thursday saying Golden’s new testimony was not credible and did not warrant a new trial. Lawyers for the state also argued that other evidence points to Alar’s guilt and that he confessed to his mother and his girlfriend for the shooting. But Alar’s lawyers rejected the “dumped ex-girlfriend” claim and said his mother “disowned” a statement that police had signed that implied her son’s confession.
The state Supreme Court sided with the attorney general, finding that the new evidence did not amount to “exceptional circumstances” justifying a suspended sentence and suggesting other evidence supported Alar’s guilt. The judges also pointed to an incident in which Alar allegedly confessed to killing a man in prison in 1999, a charge that was at issue in his original sentencing but was later dropped.
The US Supreme Court also rejected Allah’s final request for relief on Friday, but liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor indicated she would uphold a moratorium on executions.
In a statement released through local activists before Friday’s execution, Allah’s mother, Dora Mason, denounced the “grave injustice perpetrated against my son” and the state’s “unwillingness to consider new evidence.” “I ask South Carolinians to reflect on the value of human life, the fallibility of our justice system and the irreversibility of the death penalty. I ask you to question the morality of taking a life in the name of justice, especially when there is doubt.”
She offered condolences and prayers to the victim’s family, pleaded with the governor to intervene and shared a message for her son: “I want you to know that I love you more than words can express. You will always be my guiding light and your strength and fortitude inspire me every day. I will be by your side until the very end.”
Alar’s defense team argued that the death sentence did not fit his conviction. He was convicted of murder without the jury clearly finding that he pulled the trigger. Prosecutors told the jury they could convict him of murder simply by believing he was present at the robbery. It is rare for a death sentence to be carried out for a murder that a person did not directly commit.
His lawyers also point out that he was subjected to severe violence as a child and was diagnosed with brain damage.
At the time of his crime, Allah was one of the youngest people sentenced to death in South Carolina in decades.
“[Allah]did not kill Mr. Graves, and his death tonight is a tragedy,” his lawyer, Gerald “Bo” King, said in a statement. “[His]childhood was filled with incomprehensible suffering, and he spent his adult life in prison for a crime he did not commit. The legal errors, hidden deals and false evidence that made tonight’s death possible should shame us all.”
Restoration of the death penalty
South Carolina has not carried out an execution since 2011. Amid growing backlash, drug companies stopped selling lethal injection drugs to the state, but last year the state passed a shield law to conceal the identities of suppliers and to purchase the sedative pentobarbital.
The state’s Supreme Court announced last month that the five men facing execution under Allah’s Judgment would be executed with at least 35 days between each execution.
Following Allah’s execution, the ACLU of South Carolina called on the governor to grant clemency to those on death row “before the state murders in our name again.”
The Rev. Hillary Taylor, a South Carolina representative for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the flaws in Allah’s case are a reminder that “the death penalty is not given to the ‘worst of the worst,’ but to those least able to defend themselves in a court of law.”
“Khalil’s execution demonstrates the discrimination inherent in the death penalty. Our justice system does not care if the right person is executed — anyone is a good enough replacement, especially if that person is young, black, poor or disabled,” Taylor said in a statement after the execution.
Graves’ daughter, Ensley Graves Lee, said in an interview Thursday that her family has been hit hard by their tragedy being back in the news in recent weeks and was shocked to learn of the new developments in the case.
“I understand that it’s probably very difficult for the other side and I’m sure they would do anything to save their loved one,” said Graves-Lee, who was 10 when her mother was murdered. “I have to remind myself that I had no choice in this. I was 10 when she died and 12 when the sentence was handed down…the death penalty was absolutely not an option.” She added: “I feel like I’m preparing for my funeral…I don’t know if there will be closure after the funeral, but I’m just trying to get through this part that was already decided for me.”
Graves-Lee, a speech-language pathologist, said she wants to remember her mother worked three retail jobs and worked hard to provide for her three children before her death. “She dedicated her life to her children,” she said. Graves-Lee said her mother also worked second jobs so she and her brother could continue dancing and gymnastics. “She had her own dreams, but she always put us first. She allowed us to do any sport or activity we wanted to do.”
She also recalled her mother taking her children up into the mountains to look at homes in the neighborhood she dreamed of buying. She passed away on Nov. 1, but she had already done her Christmas shopping for her children, and a former coworker at Kmart had sent her the gifts she had bought for them.
“I’m sad that my mother can’t be here. This situation has taken so much from both of us. My children don’t have a grandmother. She didn’t get to see them grow up. It wasn’t fair to my grandmother,” Graves Lee said. “I hope she’s resting in peace after tomorrow.”