At times, Freddie Eugene Owens' letters are incredibly vulnerable as he says he's "also human." At others they threaten violence and say "betrayers will be slayed"

In South Carolina, the governor has the lone ability to grant clemency and reduce a death sentence to life in prison. However, no governor has done that in the state’s 43 executions since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976.

South Carolina is set to execute its first inmate in 13 years after an unintended pause because the state could not obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.