The 1st Execution of 2025
South Carolina executed Marion
Bowman Jr. by lethal injection on January 31, 2025 in the first execution in the
United States this year, according to USA TODAY.
Bowman, who was pronounced dead at 6:27 p.m., was on Death
Row for the 2001 murder of 21-year-old
Kandee Martin, a young mother who was killed five days before her son's
second birthday. Police found Martin's bullet-ridden body in the trunk of her
own car, which had been set on fire.
Bowman
described Martin as a longtime friend and sometimes sexual partner,
and while he admitted to selling crack cocaine to her, he always maintained he
was innocent of her murder.
“I did not kill Kandee Martin. I’m innocent of the crimes
I’m here to die for," Bowman said in his final words released through his
legal team. Still, he said that Martin's family is in pain and
"justifiably angry."
"If my death brings them some relief and ability to
focus on the good times and funny stories, then I guess it will have served a
purpose," he said. "I hope they find peace."
Martin's family, meanwhile, told USA TODAY ahead of the
execution that they have been counting down the minutes until the execution and
hoping it would bring them closure.
"He's had 24 years to find God and tie up his loose ends," Martin said. "We never got that opportunity. What was left of Kandee is in a coffin in the ground."
Bowman used some of his last words to draw attention to the
death penalty and how society views people on Death Row, saying they're
"labeled as the worst of the worst."
"None of these guys that I have gotten to know and
grown to love are the people that they were when they had their moment that
cost them everything," he said. "If the world could see us in our day
to day, they would have a different view of the death penalty. We all pray for
grace and forgiveness, but the outside world is stuck with images of monsters
perpetrated by the State, while our real voices are silenced."
He concluded by saying: "We are not what the State
labels us to be. We are kind, caring, loving people, and it’s a shame the world
can’t see that.”
Bowman's last meal was fried shrimp, fish, and oysters,
chicken wings, chicken tenders, onion rings, banana pudding, German chocolate
cake. He drank pineapple juice and cranberry juice.
A jury convicted Bowman of murdering Martin, whom Bowman
described as a longtime friend and sometimes sexual partner who bought crack
cocaine from him. Prosecutors argued that Martin owed Bowman money for drugs
and cited several witnesses who said they heard him swearing to kill the young
woman.
On Feb. 17, 2001, police found Martin's body. She had been
shot once in the chest and once in the head on a dark country road. Her killer
put her body in the trunk of her car and lit the car on fire, court records
show.
The day she was killed, Bowman − who was 20 years old − said
that he sold Martin drugs several times throughout the day but that later on
she was "buying on credit." He said the two had sex and that
afterward he saw her drive off in her car with his cousin, also a dealer.
That cousin became the star witness in Bowman's murder trial
as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors for a reduced sentence. Bowman
argues that jurors never heard that his cousin had confessed to killing Martin
to a cellmate and that prosecutors ignored evidence that pointed to his
cousin's and another man's guilt.
"I have done some things in life I regret," Bowman
wrote. "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 daughter of a rebar contractor and a stay-at-home mom,
Kandee grew up in the tiny town of Branchville in rural South Carolina, about
halfway between Charleston and Columbia. The town had limited employment
options and was so small, Martin recalls that her graduating high school had just
21 students.
Kandee wanted something more and talked often of making it
to Charleston and starting a career.
"She was a small town girl whose dream was to get out
of the small town and just make something of her life," Martin said.
Before Kandee could get out of Branchville, she got pregnant
with a baby boy who was both unexpected and a welcome blessing. "She went
from being just a young single girl to being someone's mom, and to her, that
was the coolest thing ever," Martin said.
"When I close my I eyes, I can still hear those two giggling with each other," Martin said.
Bowman was killed by a lethal injection of pentobarbital.
Bowman's attorneys had been arguing that there was a
"veil of secrecy" surrounding the drug, saying in court documents
that the state has refused to turn over basic details, like the pentobarbital's
expiration date and how it's stored. They also raised questions about the
drug's purity and quality after a second dose was given to South Carolina
inmate Richard
Moore 11 minutes after his execution began in November.
In court filings, the state argued that Bowman could have
chosen a firing squad or electric chair for his execution, but he opted to die
by lethal injection for Martin's "gruesome murder."
Lindsey Vann, one of Bowman's attorneys, said he chose
lethal injection despite the unanswered questions because the firing squad and
electric chair are "barbaric and unconstitutional." If Bowman hadn't
chosen from among the three, the default method would have been the electric
chair.
Bowman grew up in a rural area in Orangeburg County, South
Carolina, about halfway between Charleston and Columbia.
He had an absent father and his mother became ill when
Bowman was a teenager, making him the man of the house, Vann told USA TODAY.
"He's just a really loyal person from his earliest years, and
unfortunately, that got him into the drug trade in the area," she said.
"My family was poor, but we got by," Bowman recently
wrote in his online testimonial. "I didn’t finish high school. I
worked at some manual labor jobs but could never make ends meet."
So, he turned to selling crack cocaine, at first to support
his mother and sister, and eventually his wife and stepchildren, Vann said.
After he was imprisoned, Bowman's wife gave birth to the
couple's baby daughter, who has since had a baby daughter of her own and made
Bowman a grandfather. He also has three step-grandchildren he considers his
own. Despite the circumstances, he says they're all close.
Vann said that Bowman matured while in prison, developed a
deep faith in God and became a bit of a writer, penning poems including one
titled ""While
I Breathe I Hope," and a new one released Friday after his death
called "Last Breath or Sigh." Among the lines in the new poem: "Let
there be no mistaking − I've felt love with every breath I've taken ... Know
that I'm in God's grasp, and it's in His bosom I'll rest in."
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