The state executed Bowman for the 2001 murder of 21-year-old Kandee Martin, a young mother who was killed five days before her son's second birthday.

South Carolina has executed their first death row prisoner this year, Marion Bowman Jr., who has been in prison since 2002 after being found guilty of killing a friend - though Bowman maintained he wa

South Carolina has put 45 inmates to death since the death penalty was restarted in the U.S. in 1976. In the early 2000s, it was carrying out an average of three executions a year. Nine states have put more inmates to death.

A Branchville man convicted of murder in Dorchester County is scheduled to die Jan. 31 after the court allowed a pause in executions over the holidays

South Carolina is preparing to execute the third inmate to be put to death since September as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn't find lethal injection drugs.

South Carolina is set to execute its third inmate since September, as the state works through a backlog of death row prisoners. Marion Bowman Jr.'s execution is scheduled for Friday evening.