Convicted murderer Marion Bowman Jr. will not ask the South Carolina governor for clemency after his final appeal was rejected, the Associated Press reported. The 44-year-old will die by lethal injection Friday night but maintains his innocence.
On Tuesday, the final word came down from the Supreme Court that the justices would not hear Bowan's appeal. The only option left is for Gov. Henry McMaster to stop the execution, but Bowman has shockingly declined to ask for such a favor.
"Marion has steadfastly maintained his innocence of Kandee Martin’s murder, yet he has already spent more than half of his life on death row. He cannot in good conscience ask for a supposed mercy that would require him to spend the rest of his life in prison for a crime he did not commit," Bowman's attorney, Lindsey Vann, said in a written statement.
"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 added. Bowman will become the third Black man to die by lethal injection in the last four months after the state resumes its executions delayed due to a shortage of lethal injection drugs.
Bowman was convicted of killing 21-year-old killing Kandee Martin in 2001. The pair were reportedly friends, and Bowman admitted that he sold Martin drugs but that he would sometimes accept sexual favors when she didn't have money.
In the murder trial, evidence against Bowman mostly came from family and friends who were promised clemency in exchange for their cooperation. One friend said Bowman was angry because Martin owed him money, while a second testified Bowman thought Martin was wearing a recording device to get him arrested on a charge.
According to the Post and Courier, the most damning testimony came from those involved in committing or covering up the crime. Bowman's cousin, James Tawain Gadson, had been drinking for hours before getting into the car with Martin and her killer.
He testified that Bowman shot her and tried to leave her body in the woods. Friend Travis Felder said he later helped Bowman put Martin's body back into the trunk of her car before lighting it on fire.
Felder testified that Bowman admitted to killing Martin. "I killed Kandee Martin. … I ain’t got you involved with it, don’t worry about it. Everything is taken care of," he told Felder.
Bowman was found guilty of Martin's murder after the jury convicted him in 2022, and he has been on death row since. He has tried every avenue available to him to get his sentence overturned and has insisted he did not kill Martin.
In his final appeal, Bowman claimed his defense was inadequate due to the racism of his attorney. The lawyer allegedly "came to the jail and said, ‘son, you need to plead guilty. You are charged with killing a white girl and you and your family are Black,'" Bowman's filing said.
The South Carolina Supreme Court called that claim "meritless" and rejected the appeal. Bowman's other angle was to challenge the fact that the ingredients in the drugs used in lethal injection were not disclosed under the state's shield law and that the dosage might not be appropriate given Bowman's 389-pound size.
The American Civil Liberties Union joined with a lawsuit against South Carolina over the nondisclosure of the ingredients of the drugs. The organization contends that other details are provided for other execution methods, including the type of ropes in hanging and the voltage used in the electric chair. All of these arguments have been rejected as Bowman's conviction and sentence stand.
The crime was horrendous, and it appears Bowman was the perpetrator of it after being convicted by a jury of his peers. If justice was indeed served in the courtroom, he has nobody to blame but himself for his fate.
