South Carolina executed Marion Bowman Jr., the third inmate in four months, as the state resumes executions after a 13-year pause. Bowman maintained his innocence until his final moments.

South Carolina's Marion Bowman Jr. became first person executed in the United States in 2025 on Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to hear his case.

On Friday, Jan. 31, the state of South Carolina executed Marion Bowman by lethal injection for the 2001 shooting death of Kandee Martin in Dorchester County. Bowman maintained his innocence for the entirety of his stay on death row until he died. In contrast, Martin’s family spoke out, saying he was a liar.

South Carolina has put a third inmate to death in four months Friday as the state goes through a backlog of prisoners who exhausted their appeals while the state couldn’t find lethal injection drugs.

Marion Bowman Jr. dies Jan. 31, becomes third man put to death since South Carolina resumed executions. He was convicted of killing young mother Kandee Martin.

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.

Bowman is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. on Friday at a Columbia, South Carolina prison for the killing of 21-year-old Kandee Martin.