A death row inmate's letters: Read vulnerable, angry thoughts written by Freddie Owens

Fernando Cervantes Jr. and JJ Hensley, USA TODAY

September 20, 2024 at 7:16 AM·2 min read

As Freddie Eugene Owens lives the last hours of his life, USA TODAY is sharing some of the South Carolina death row inmate's handwritten letters to a woman he loved. At times furious and at others loving and deeply vulnerable, the letters show a man contemplating his life and death.

Owens is set to be executed Friday despite a newly sworn statement from his co-defendant that he wasn't even at the scene of a the convenience store robbery that landed him on death row. Owens was convicted of killing 41-year-old Irene Grainger Graves during a robbery of the store where she worked on Halloween night 1997.

On Wednesday, Owens' co-defendant, Steven Golden, signed a sworn statement saying that Owens didn't shoot Graves and was not even there, according to reporting by the Greenville News, part of the USA TODAY Network. The South Carolina Supreme Court dismissed the sworn statement and is allowing the execution to proceed.

USA TODAY obtained letters that Owens wrote to his then-girlfriend over the span of more than a year back in the 1990s.

In them, we can see a deeply troubled man, scarred by a traumatic childhood and someone who at times threatened the ones he loved in chilling terms and at others showed a more vulnerable side. Here are some of his letters.