At times, Freddie Eugene Owens' letters are incredibly vulnerable as he says he's "also human." At others they threaten violence and say "betrayers will be slayed."

In South Carolina, which on Friday will execute its first inmate since 2011, 43 convicted murderers have been executed by the state since the death penalty was reinstated here in 1976. Few death row inmates have been acquitted in that time, but a substantial number have still managed to get off death row.

Strada came to Tennessee in January 2023 from Arizona, where he left behind a broken executions process. Another cause for the state's execution delay is Tennessee's ongoing difficulty finding the drugs used in a lethal injection.

At times, Freddie Eugene Owens' letters are incredibly vulnerable as he says he's "also human." At others they threaten violence and say "betrayers will be slayed"

In South Carolina, the governor has the lone ability to grant clemency and reduce a death sentence to life in prison. However, no governor has done that in the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976.

Freddie Owens' execution appears to be moving forward despite a sworn statement from the man who testified against him that Owens wasn't even at the crime scene.