Last meal of death row inmate announced after first South Carolina execution in 13 years

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In South Carolina, the first person sentenced to death in 13 years was executed for the murder of a supermarket employee in 1997.

Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah, 46, died by lethal injection on Friday evening after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block his execution and state Governor Henry McMaster rejected a plea for clemency.

Allah, formerly known as Freddie Owens, was executed in front of three media witnesses at the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.

He did not make a final statement. The South Carolina inmate reportedly said “bye” to his lawyer as he was being administered the drugs for the lethal injection.

The 46-year-old received the drugs at around 6:35 p.m. and was pronounced dead 20 minutes later. The execution was postponed from its original 6 p.m. start date as the state awaited the Supreme Court's decision.

Allah's last meal consisted of two cheeseburgers, fries, a well-done ribeye steak, six chicken wings, two strawberry lemonades and a slice of apple pie, WYFF reports.

“No signs of discomfort,” wrote Associated Press media witness Jeffery Collins. “Freddie Owens may have had a small smile on his face the entire time, but certainly no grimace or anything like that, while he appeared to be conscious during the event.”

Allah was convicted of armed robbery and murder of cashier Irene Graves at the supermarket in 1997. He was 19 at the time of the murder, in which 41-year-old Graves was shot in the head.

Graves' son and son-in-law were present at the execution, as were family members of Christopher Bryan Lee, a former cellmate whom Allah killed in 1999.

Allah has always insisted that he is innocent of Graves' murder.

Weeks before the execution, co-defendant Steven Golden told the court that he had testified against Allah as part of a secret agreement with the prosecution. Just two days before the execution, Golden retracted his testimony.

Golden, who served 28 years in prison for his role in the murder, wrote in an affidavit that he lied to a South Carolina jury during his 1999 trial when he claimed Owens pulled the trigger. He added that he was under the influence of cocaine and marijuana at the time of his arrest and questioning by police.

“Freddie Owens is not the person who shot Irene Graves at the Speedway on November 1, 1997,” Golden wrote in the affidavit filed this week in the South Carolina Supreme Court. The Greenville News“Freddie wasn't there when I robbed the speedway that day.”

“Freddie Owens did not kill Ms. Graves,” the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Western District of North Carolina said in a statement to Fox Carolina. “His death tonight is a tragedy. Mr. Owens' childhood was marked by suffering on a scale that is hard to comprehend. He spent his adult life in prison for a crime he did not commit. The legal errors, hidden collusion and false evidence that made this evening possible should shame us all.”

South Carolina stopped executing inmates in 2011 when it ran out of drugs needed for lethal injections. In the years that followed, the state introduced the electric chair and execution by firing squad before passing a “protection law” to keep secret all information about the procurement of drugs and procedures used in lethal injection.

The Independent and the non-profit Initiative for responsible companies in the service of justice (RBIJ) have launched a joint campaign calling for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States. RBIJ has attracted more than 150 high-profile signatories to its Business Leaders Declaration Against the Death Penalty – The Independent is the latest signatory on the list. We join high-profile leaders such as Ariana Huffington, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg and Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson in this initiative and are committed to highlighting the injustices of the death penalty in our reporting.