South Carolina plans to execute Marion Bowman on Friday in what will be the first of 13 executions planned by six states (so far) in 2025. However, the Death Penalty Information Center reports that of those 13, five were scheduled in Ohio, which hasn’t killed anyone since 2018 when Gov. Mike DeWine paused executions because of an inability to obtain lethal injection drugs. Because that remains the case in Ohio, it’s unlikely the state will kill the five men scheduled for execution.
The remaining five states with upcoming executions include:
- South Carolina – 1
- Texas – 4
- Alabama – 1
- Florida – 1
- Oklahoma – 1
The first execution is scheduled for Friday, when South Carolina plans to kill Marion Bowman, with four more scheduled in the following two weeks. Texas has two planned, and Alabama and Florida have each scheduled one.
If South Carolina proceeds with its plan to kill Marion Bowman, it will be the state’s third execution since it resumed executions in September after a 13-year hiatus. That pause was by the state when it was unable to obtain lethal injection drugs. But on July 31, after the state Supreme Court ruled that electrocution and firing squad were acceptable methods of execution, legislators promptly added firing squad and electrocution to the state protocol. Officials then found a supply of pentobarbital and killed Freddie Owens in September and Richard Moore in November by lethal injection.
Marion Bowman was only 20 when he was arrested for the murder of 21-year-old Kandee Martin in 2001. He was convicted and sentenced to death in 2002. His lawyers have argued that he was not given a fair trial because prosecutors withheld evidence and “his lead trial lawyer failed to adequately represent him due to racial prejudices,” according to the Post and Courier.
In 2022, the American Psychological Association called on the courts, Congress, and state legislatures to ban the death penalty for people younger than 21 “based on scientific research indicating that adolescent brains continue to develop well beyond age 18.”