Marion Bowman executed in South Carolina for the murder of 2001 of the young woman: “I am innocent”

South Carolina executed Marion Bowman Jr. By lethal injection on Friday in the first execution in the United States this year.

Bowman, who was declared dead at 6:27 pm, was in the death corridor for the 2001 murder of Kandee Martin, 21,A young mother who was killed five days before her son’s second birthday. The police found Martin’s bullet body in the trunk of his own car, which had been burned.

Bowman described Martin As a long time a sexual couple, and although she admitted to having sold Cocaine crack, she always said she was innocent of her murder.

“I didn’t kill Kandee Martin. I am innocent of the crimes for which I am here to die, “Bowman said in his last words released through his legal team. Even so, he said that Martin’s family has pain and” justifiably angry. “

“If my death brings you some relief and ability to concentrate on the good times and funny stories, then I suppose it will have served a purpose,” he said. “I hope you find peace.”

Meanwhile, Martin’s family told USA Today before the execution that they have been telling the minutes until the execution and hoping that he will bring them the closure.

“He has been 24 years to find God and tie his loose ends,” Martin said. “We never had that opportunity. What was left of Kandee is in a coffin on the ground.”

Marion Bowman’s latest words

Bowman used some of his last words to call attention to the death penalty and how society sees people in the death corridor, saying that they are “labeled as the worst of the worst.”

“None of these types that I have come to know and grow to love are the people who were when they had their time that cost them everything,” he said. “If the world could see us in our day to day, they would have a different vision of the death penalty. We all pray for grace and forgiveness, but the outside world is trapped with images of monsters perpetrated by the State, while our true true The voices are silenced. “

He concluded by saying: “We are not what the State labels us to be. We are friendly, affectionate and lovers of the people, and it is a shame that the world cannot see that.”

Marion Bowman’s last meal

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 blueberry juice.

What was condemned to Marion Bowman?

A jury condemned Bowman for killing Martin, whom Bowman described as a friend and sometimes a sexual couple who bought Crack cocaine. The prosecutors argued that Martin owed money to Bowman for drugs and quoted several witnesses who said they heard him curse for killing the young woman.

On February 17, 2001, the police found Martin’s body. They had shot him once on his chest and once in his head on a dark road. His murderer put his body in the trunk of his car and ignited the car in flames, as shown by the judicial records.

The day they killed her, Bowman, who was 20, said she sold Martin’s drugs several times during the day, but that she was later “buying on credit.” He said that the two had sex and then saw her drive in her car with her cousin, also a distributor.

That cousin became a star witness in the trial for Bowman’s murder as part of a guilt agreement with prosecutors for a reduced sentence. Bowman argues that the jury members never heard that their cousin had confessed to kill Martin to a cellmate and that prosecutors ignored the evidence he pointed to his cousin and the fault of another man.

“I have done some things in life, I regret,” Bowman wrote. “I regret the role I had when treating Kandee and I know that his addiction probably led him to death. But I didn’t do this.”

More: ‘I didn’t’: South Carolina man ready for execution argues innocence, racial bias

Who was Kandee Martin?

Daughter of a bar bar contractor and a mother who stays at home, Kandee grew up in the small city of Branchville in the rural area of ​​South Carolina, in the middle of Charleston and Columbia. The city had limited employment options and was so small, Martin remembers that his graduated high school had only 21 students.

Kandee wanted something else and often talked about arriving in Charleston and starting a race.

“She was a little girl girl whose dream was to leave the little town and do something about her life,” Martin said.

Before Kandee could leave Branchville, she was pregnant with a baby who was unexpected and a welcome blessing. “He went from being just a single young woman to be someone’s mother, and for her, that was the most great,” Martin said.

“When I close my eyes, I can still listen to those two laughing with each other,” Martin said.

What execution method was used?

Bowman was killed by a lethal injection of Pentobarbital.

Bowman’s lawyers had been arguing that there was a “veil of secret” around the drug, saying in judicial documents that the State has refused to deliver basic details, such as the expiration date of the pentobarbital and how it is stored. They also raised questions about the purity and quality of the drug after a second dose was given to the South Carolina inmate. Richard Moore 11 minutes after its execution began in November.

In the judicial archives, the State argued that Bowman could have chosen a shots squad or an electric chair for its execution, but chose to die by lethal injection for Martin’s “horrible murder”.

Lindsey Vann, one of Bowman’s lawyers, said he chose lethal injection despite the unanswered questions because the shots squad and the electric chair are “barbaric and unconstitutional.” If Bowman had not chosen between the three, the predetermined method would have been the electric chair.

More about Marion Bowman

Bowman grew in a rural area in Orangeburg County, South Carolina, half of Charleston and Columbia.

He had an absent father and his mother got sick when Bowman was a teenager, making him the man in the house, Vann told the USA Today. “He is a really loyal person since his early years, and unfortunately, that led him to drug trafficking in the area,” he said.

“My family was poor, but we surpassed,” Bowman Recently wrote In his online testimony. “I did not finish high school. I worked in some manual jobs but I could never reach the end of the month.”

Then, Cocaine crack was sold again, at first to keep his mother and sister, and finally his wife and steps, Vann said.

After he was imprisoned, Bowman’s wife gave birth to the couple’s daughter, who has since had his own daughter and made Bowman a grandfather. It also has three grandchildren that you consider your own. Despite the circumstances, he says they are all close.

Vann said Bowman matured while he was in prison, developed a deep faith in God and became a writer, writing poems, including one entitled ““While I breathe, I hope and a new one released on Friday after his death called “Last Breath or Sigh”. Among the lines in the new poem: “That there are no mistakes, I have felt love with every breath that I have taken … I know that I am in the range of God, and it is in its bosom where I will rest.”

This article originally appeared in the USA Today: Marion Bowman executed in South Carolina by the 2001 murder of the young woman